Exclusive: Why Clark Lea Feels He’s Got Deepest Vanderbilt Football Team of His Tenure

NASHVILLE—Clark Lea isn’t naive to the idea that his Vanderbilt football team will take its lumps as a result of the departures of Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers. He also knows his 2026 team may not have any players with the impact that those two did. 

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t think he’s got something with his 2026 team. 

It may not have a first rounder or a quarterback that has a season on par with the best in the conference, but he’s got indicators all over his roster that his program has matured in the way it builds its roster.

Lea has the 34th most experienced offense in the country, the No. 4 defense in the country, is No. 2 in game experience in the country and No. 12 in returning starts. He believes he’s got something beyond just his starters, too. 

“Just in terms of quality depth, I mean, this is probably the best team we’ve had,” Lea told Vandy on SI. “Obviously, we have some big gaps to fill, and some of those gaps were our production leaders from a year ago, but I like this team. 
I like where we are.” 

Lea and company are coming off of a season in which they set the program wins record with a 10-3 run on the back of Pavia and Stowers. As a result, Lea could see a difference in regard to how recruits viewed the program as a College Football Playoff contender rather than merely a competitive program.

As a result, the buzz around the program in the spring was that this was the most filled out two deep that the program had assembled since Lea took the job. 

As a result, spring practice looked different than its been able to at times in Lea’s tenure. Vanderbilt’s staff knew who its starters were at a number of positions, knew what they could do and was able to focus on evaluating the other options on the two deep. 

Plastered all over the walls of Vanderbilt’s facility were pictures of a mountain with the words Win in November plastered across every video board in sight. Lea had just a 3-13 November record entering the season, but went 3-1 to end the 2025 season. It appears as if he believes his team could be equipped to do something similar in 2026. 

“I think we got a lot of work out of us the next two months before we get in the training camp, but, it’s a group that I believe has spirit,” Lea said. “We’ve been able to, even in the spring game, hold some of our guys out that have already played a bunch of snaps. Just staying healthy, getting reps to the guys that we’re gonna need to find roles, especially, you later in the season, as we do take on injury. 
I mean, that’s inevitable.”

Lea appears to believe that his Vanderbilt team is more equipped to handle injury than any of his previous ones, though. He doesn’t have as many margin-buying offensive pieces as he once did, but he believes that this Vanderbilt team was built sustainably. 

“We like this team,” Lea said. “I appreciate how it’s been built. I think there’s a good nucleus of guys that have hung in there with us over time, and then the guys that we’ve added seem to really embrace the environment. 
I understand the mission, and they’ve been able to kind of jump in and help us move forward quickly.”

Follow us onTwitter/X,Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,ThreadsandBlue Skyfor the latest news.