NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In a season full of milestones, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea has been named the Region 2 Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.
As the regional winner, Lea is now a finalist for AFCA National Coach of the Year alongside Army’s Jeff Monken, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, BYU’s Kalani Sitake and Boise State’s Spencer Danielson. The AFCA has recognized a coach of the year as voted by its members since 1960. National coaches of the year across all divisions of college football will be announced Dec. 16.
Lea has led a resurgent Vanderbilt football program in his fourth season at his alma mater. An offseason retooling of the roster and coaching staff saw Lea hire 11 new coaches and bring in over 50 new student-athletes. The coaching hires included chief consultant to the head coach Jerry Kill, offensive coordinator Tim Beck and director of football sports performance Robert Stiner, while Lea assumed defensive coordinator responsibilities.
The results bared fruit almost immediately as the Commodores secured an opening-week win over Virginia Tech. The team earned National Team of the Week honors from the Football Writers Association of America for the 34-27 overtime victory.
After a win over Alcorn State and a pair of heartbreaking losses at Georgia State and No. 7 Missouri, the Commodores welcomed No. 1 Alabama to FirstBank Stadium and made history.
In its 135 football seasons, Vanderbilt had never beaten the nation’s top-ranked team and was 0-60 when facing teams in the Associated Press Top 5. Those streaks were broken on Oct. 5 when the Commodores never trailed en route to a 40-35 victory over the Crimson Tide.
The 35 points scored by Alabama were the lowest total at that point in the season and Vanderbilt held on to the football for 42:08 while going 12-of-18 on third down. Quarterback Diego Pavia led the Commodores to an opening-drive score, the first first-quarter touchdown allowed by the Tide on the season. Pavia finished 16-for-20 for 252 yards and two touchdowns with his 80 percent completion rate the highest against Alabama since 2010.
The win over the Tide earned Vanderbilt its second National Team of the Week award from the FWAA, the first time since 2005 the same team earned the honor twice in the same season.
Vanderbilt kept the momentum rolling the next week at Kentucky, again never trailing in a 20-13 slugfest in Lexington. Pavia was 15-for-18 for 143 yards and two touchdowns while adding 53 yards on the ground. Brock Taylor drilled a pair of field goals as Vandy pushed to a 20-7 lead before a CJ Taylor interception clinched the game. It marked Vanderbilt’s second straight win at Kentucky’s Kroger Field.
A victory over Ball State followed on Oct. 19, sending Vanderbilt into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2013. The following game against Texas, a 27-24 setback to the fifth-ranked Longhorns, marked the first time Vanderbilt played a regular season game as a ranked team since 2008.
The Commodores again bounced back from a tough defeat, again making history against a team from Alabama. This time it was Auburn as Vanderbilt won for the first time in program history at Jordan-Hare Stadium, clinching bowl eligibility with a 17-7 victory. The Dores again never trailed and held Auburn off the scoreboard in the second half.
A setback to South Carolina put the Dores at 6-4 and 3-3 in SEC play with two games remaining. Vandy first travels to LSU where Lea faces his former boss in Tiger head coach Brian Kelly. Lea served as Kelly’s defensive coordinator for three seasons at Notre Dame, two of which resulted in College Football Playoff berths. The season concludes with the Dores’ annual in-state rivalry game against Tennessee.
Vanderbilt is going to a bowl game for the first time since the 2018 season and is looking for one more victory in its final games to finish above the .500 mark for the first time since 2013.
The Commodores and Tigers meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Saturday at 6:45 p.m. on SEC Network.
