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ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Banner Society’s Steven Godfrey are both reporting that Vanderbilt will announce Notre Dame defensive coordinator and Vanderbilt alum Clark Lea as the program’s next head coach later this week.
News: Post coming soon, but Auburn is moving quick and Vanderbilt will likely have Notre Dame DC Clark Lea done and announced in a few days.
— Steven N. Godfrey Jr. (@38Godfrey) December 14, 2020
#NotreDame D-coordinator Clark Lea emerging as the top target to become #Vanderbilt's next head coach, sources tell @ClowESPN. Lea is a Nashville native who played at Vandy. I'm hearing the hire will be finalized before midweek. Buffalo's Lance Leipold also among those considered
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) December 14, 2020
My opinion of this is that I would have liked Jamey Chadwell better, but this is acceptable, and Lea might also have a higher floor than Chadwell or Will Healy, who I really didn’t want. He also gets the culture at Vanderbilt better than probably anyone.
That said, Lea also doesn’t have a track record as a head coach so we don’t entirely know what we’re getting, but the people who liked the Club Lit nonsense think he’s boring, which honestly gets me on board with this better than telling me he’s exciting and high energy.
And now, we wait for this to be official. Hey, we could do a hell of a lot worse than the defensive coordinator for a likely playoff team.