NASHVILLE, Tenn. — About a third of the way through spring ball, Vanderbilt plans – weather permitting – to scrimmage Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium. It’s a scrimmage where first-year head coach Clark Lea won’t be solely concerned with position battles or touchdowns or turnovers.
He’ll be looking for the more nuanced aspects of the intrasquad session.
“I want to see ball security and ball disruption. I want to see center-quarterback exchanges. I want to see communication. I want to see proper alignments,” Lea said. “I want to see a team that plays hard and physical and can sustain that effort over time. That will be the measure.
“There are going to be moments where it’s going to be great. There are other times where we’re struggling to get a play off, where we’re struggling to get lined up on defense. We’re going to deal with some of that volatility.”
The ups and downs of spring practice have been plenty through four workouts spanning two weeks. But that’s not a surprise for Lea and his staff, virtually all of whom are new faces to the student-athletes.
On Tuesday, the Commodores took a bit of a step back in regards to effort and mentality. During the first day of full contact Thursday, the squad bounced back in a positive manner, perhaps showing its grasp of the type of program Lea wants to build.
It’s a program that will be focused on the now and the future, not the past.
“We haven’t spent any time on what was done before, what it was. Those conversations don’t necessarily matter to me,” Lea said. “Any time there’s something new, there’s a period of adjustment. With everyday you see the adjustments of the settling in of a package, the settling in of the play. Then there are other things where you say, ‘OK we have to do this better.’ You defer judgement and just keep working day-to-day to build.
“It’s a fun time because everything is new. When everything is new you’re just getting a fresh perspective every day. There are these small, little growing points because you’re excited.”
Lea said while his offensive, defensive and special teams units are split into first and second teams, those groups are in constant change. Any sort of depth chart that would exist now fluctuates daily and will do so all the way until the Sept. 4 season-opener – and then throughout the remainder of the 2021 campaign as well.
The former Vanderbilt fullback wants his players competing every day for a starting position and evolving every day in their abilities.
Lea added he spent little to no time time evaluating what his current roster had accomplished – or even failed to accomplish – in years past. That gives the Commodores unlimited opportunities this spring, summer and fall to prove themselves.
“Every practice, I feel like for most of our players, is one play can look really good and the next play we’re dropping the ball or we’re not running the right route or we’re not in the right position on defense,” Lea said. “Good programs can sustain performance and we’re still working on a level of consistency down-in and down-out. You don’t really know what your players are capable of until you see what they’re able to sustain consistently. That’s a part of the evaluation, too.”
After Saturday’s scrimmage the Dores will return to the practice field Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week. The team’s second scrimmage of the spring is scheduled for April 10.
The program’s annual spring game is scheduled for April 17.
“We’re going to play live football Saturday and that will be fun. I’m excited to see who flashes and who stands out in that environment,” Lea said. “To be fair to everybody, there’s so much learning. We are building our systems every day. We’re attentive to how we strengthen our practice procedures and the players are learning those procedures, too.
“There’s this acclimation to everything football – the scheme, the roles within the schemes – we’ll find out a little bit Saturday and by the next scrimmage we’ll know a little bit more and then by the spring game we’ll know guys who are really standing out as positive contributors.”
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.