SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 14, 2025

Clark Lea

Vanderbilt Commodores

Press Conference

CLARK LEA: All right, first of all, thanks to Commission for the introduction.

It's great to be here in Atlanta. I wanted to start just by expressing how grateful I am to be here. Yeah, I think every time I get in front of you guys it seems like whether it's in Destin or at this event, there is always a new point of chaos in the world, some drama we're trying to solve.

I think it's important just to say that I love my job. I can't imagine a more important time than right now to be a coach, to be responsible for the development of young people. For me, to be able to do that in the SEC, the best conference in the country, it's never been stronger, what a great opportunity, what an incredible challenge.

And I love my team. I think that's important. I love the team I get to coach. We are imperfect. We're a work in progress. There is so much important learning ahead of us.

But that's actually the fun part. Being around my team every day brings me energy, gives me hope, and so I'm grateful.

It's easy to be excited about a team that returns as much production as we do, especially considering the retention of our coaching staff. Retention is the product of two things: It starts with the shared belief in what's possible for our program, the belief in last year as a beginning and not an arrival.

But in the current state of affairs, current landscape of college football, you're not talking about retaining without resources, and so I'm deeply grateful to Chancellor Diermeier and Candice Lee for having the courage and vision to go beyond historical limits that have held our program back in the past and to champion a new era of growth and support.

Their leadership to go further is what allows for us to reach for more. We have so much important work ahead of us to get this program to a point of sustainability, but I couldn't imagine better partners for the journey. And without them, there is no program. And so a thank you to them.

Our hopes for this team reflect the strength in leadership from our players. In the end this is a players' game. It's their game. As a coach you're privileged to serve in a supporting role, but they are the heroes of this story.

Traveling with me today I have three players that will be important parts of our success this fall. Martel Hight, who is from Rome, Georgia. It's his third year in our program and he'll be featured in all three phases this fall.

Martel is a guy that has established himself as a playmaker on the field. His growth mirrors our program's growth. I'm excited for you to get to know him today. He's a special player, but more importantly a special person.

Randon Fontenette is in his second year in our program. Randon a productive year last season. He stepped up in critical moments and made season-defining plays on defense. He has improved in all areas this offseason, but most importantly he's modeled a consistency in his work, and really exhibited some leadership qualities that we'll rely upon this fall.

And then finally, Diego Pavia. I don't think there is anything left to be written about Diego Pavia. He's had such a profound impact on all aspects of our program. He's an energy source for Vanderbilt University, for the Nashville community, and I think for college football fans everywhere.

He's the ultimate competitor, and I think this fall is a great opportunity for him to cement his legacy with Vanderbilt football.

So three guys that mean a lot to me. Three guys that mean a lot to our program. I'm excited for them to be here in representation of Vanderbilt football today.

As energized as we may be for where we are, it's important to acknowledge we've been here before. Two years ago I stood before you messaging excitement and progress. That gave way to a failed season. We went backward before we could move forward; progress is seldom linear.

I don't think I have to convince anyone in this room how hard it is to win. We played eight games last season to one possession, one score. We were 4-4 in those games.

With this in mind, we're as close to 2-10 as we are to 10-2. This is our reality. As we strengthen, so too does our league. There is no easy pass.

So we can't just copy and paste our process from a year ago and expect to advance. To copy and past is to remain the same. To remain the same is to abandon the mission, and our mission is winning.

For us this means embracing a process of continuous improvement that leads to us winning every game on our schedule. We believe we have what it takes to play into January. We have to support our belief with a disciplined focus in the present.

The burden of our goals is the pressure of knowing we can't afford to have an off night. We can't afford to have a lackluster effort or unfocused snap.

All this takes a mature team and a team devoted to winning. The success we hope for will not be waiting for us. We have to chase progress every day. Chasing progress starts with deepening our understanding of who we are and internalizing our approach to winning.

Vanderbilt football is a chip-on-the-shoulder operation. It's young. It's home to a young, hungry, scrappy team that begins each day with something to prove. We want to make life miserable for the teams we play against because of how we play the game, the energy we bring every time we step on the field.

This is what makes us special. Not our buildings or banners. It's our people. Our collective heartbeat relatedness is our edge. We must pay attention to the attitude of the team. We must cultivate the right mindset, and we've got to silence any narrative that suggests an arrival or assurance of progress. Anything that steals our attention from the present will keep us from playing to our identity and executing our strategy every time out.

When we fail to do those things we leave the mission to chance. Chasing progress extends to measurable ways we can play better football. We're a team that cannot afford to beat ourselves. We have to take pride in our performance in the areas that we control. This includes pre-snatch and post-whistle penalties, errors of execution. These self-imposed negatives combined with possession of the ball to be the foundation of winning football at Vanderbilt.

Offensively, I'm thrilled to have Tim Beck return as offensive coordinator in his second season leading the offense. Playing better football is about finding creative ways to generate explosive plays and limiting three-and-out possessions that undermine our strategy.

Defensively Steve Gregory has assumed the role of defensive coordinator. He's a trusted partner and his assuming that role gives me a better opportunity to be better head coach. While also collaborating seamlessly with the defensive staff and defensive players every day.

For us on defense, better football exists in improving third down perform and generating more turnovers, both of which will allow our offense to possess the ball for more time.

And then there is better football to be played on special teams led by Jeff LePak for the second year. This is a critical margin for us to win. It's the bedrock of our complementary style of play, and any path into the post-season will be cut by the strength of our performance in this phase.

We are chasing progress by focusing on ways to maintain high performance through a long and challenging season. We learned last year to win in November that we have to be better prepared mentally, physically, and emotionally. This starts with our approach to training and extends to our dedication outside of the building.

As a team we must become harder to break. In this effort we called our players into a deeper commitment asking they allow the mission to shape all their choices, habits, and behaviors. Additionally we bolstered depth on both sides of the line of scrimmage, because in the SEC to win in November you have to win up front.

Ultimately, winning football is our focus. It sets the course for everything we do as a program. Chasing progress best positions us to reach mission success. Simple to explain, certainly will challenge us to our very core over the next six months.

As we set our sights for more, we will not compromise on our commitment to develop the whole person. Holistic development is an important part of our program's DNA.

This is about teaching responsibility, accountability, and shared ownership. It's actualizing discipline, respect, and spirit in everything we do. Knowing there is no separation between the values that define us as people and those that will define our team in competition.

We must set boundaries and ask our coaches, players, and staff to live in the program standards every day, to journey beyond safety and familiarity to where the discomfort of change and growth await.

Not everyone is cut out for this journey, but those who find success along the way recognize that the program's demands are in service to their personal success as well as team success, and in our environment we do not place limitations on what the individual can achieve.

We're proud of the fact we've had seven consecutive semesters of a team GPA of over 3.0. For the first time since 1989 we've had back-to-back seasons with an Academic All-American.

Our performance off the field strengths our performance on it. Just as the demands of the mission become the anvil upon which personal character is formed, it all goes hand in hand with our people first, mission always approach, and our belief that better people make a better team.

This fall is a great opportunity for our program to show that we're one year closer to the vision we had when we started four years ago. With that in mind, the opportunity is not the outcome. The burden of proof is on us.

But I believe the real challenge exists in not holding on to it too tight. We have to find a way to have a little fun with it, let it all breathe a little bit. Let's focus in the present, the work that needs to be done. Let's be really intentional about building meaningful connections. In doing so, let's enjoy the journey together.

We know it's going to deliver the full catastrophe. That's the point. Let's embrace and learn and grow through it. Most importantly, let's experience the thrill of knowing we have something at stake at Vanderbilt. We built something worth fighting for.

I want to close by honoring the late Mike Wright senior. He passed in May at the age of 49. Big Mike's two sons, Mike Jr. and Taco are former members of our program, and in this way his family is our family.

In fact, the last time this event was in Atlanta, I had Mike Jr. with me representing our program as quarterback. As I return here, I carry the Wright family on my heart.

Also grieving the loss of Simeon Boulware's brother Caleb, who lost his battle with cancer in June.

Caleb graduated from Dacula High School, class of 2025. Was a dedicated member of the football team there. Heartbroken for Simeon and the Boulware family, and continue to keep them in our prayers.

Q. Obviously Vanderbilt is one of the top academic universities not just in the SEC, but in the country. How much of a role does that play in your pitch to recruits, and does it seem to matter as much in the NIL era as it used to?

CLARK LEA: First off, I appreciate the recruiting plug. That's awesome. Yeah, we are very proud. It matters. It matters. Does it move the needle right now as much as three years ago? No. But I think we'll come back to it.

I think what we're doing now is there is this data set that's forming around the NIL era and what's driven decisions. We're going to know a lot more about what this environment has produced in terms of people that are ready for the responsibilities in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and on.

I think once we know more about that data set, the knowledge base of how important that education is, and I think specifically the environment, the program environment, I think we're going to see a return to significance of things that go beyond just dollar signs.

So the landscape has shifted certainly. It's not nearly the impact that it used to be. Obviously that varies based on the recruit. I do think just like all things, what flashes now doesn't always sustain. There will be a return to kind of those bedrock features that actually impact life over the long-term.

Q. Coach, what did Stowers do last year to have the season he did, and what do you expect from him this year?

CLARK LEA: Well, Eli, you know, for anyone who knows him, first of all, he could be easily here for our program. He's a standup human, first and foremost. His faith is so important to him. He's a spiritual leader in our locker room.

You know, he's got such a maturity about his process at what he's looking for that complements physical skills that put him among the best of the best.

He's a good athlete, smart, former quarterback. Lined up as a the wildcat. He's played quarterback in this system. We flex him out as receiver. We try to find matchups with him. He's a trusted pair of hands for Diego.

You know, I think his choice to return is also a testament to where we are as a program. You know, 2021, 2022 were defined by us losing players, drafted players to other programs and losing free agent graded players to the NFL.

I think our willingness in the last couple years to really step up from an NIL standpoint and put the infrastructure in place to be competitive in the revenue sharing era, allows us to bring a guy like Eli back.

Again, he could have very well been an early round draft pick this past season. He comes back to obviously help our program go after more. He gets one more year in a tight end room to physically develop as a tight end, which is a dramatically different course than where he started his career as a quarterback.

Obviously it's mutually beneficial. I'm really proud to have him back. Again, I think that's a great statement for Vanderbilt, too.

Q. Obviously a ton of returning experience coming back this fall. What do you like about this defense? You guys obviously made a lot of positive strides last year and led to a lot of wins.

CLARK LEA: Well, the return of production, the return of people. Even with the coordinator role change the system doesn't change. We're going to evolve it just like everyone evolves. They know the language, the expectations day in and day out.

This time last year we were still trying to form it all. Through fall camp I can remember a couple practices where there was some real conflict we had to go through to get to the point where we were lining up and playing in structure.

Defense is about 11 guys working together. That's what it is. One person out of position and you have an explosive touchdown. So we're past those growing pains. Obviously we will have some new players on the field. On the whole, the core of our defense returns and we need to play better on that side of the ball for our team to reach the goals we have for the season.

That means, like I said earlier, that we're focused on improving on third down. Our offense last year took care of the ball at a rate that put us I think No. 1 in the country in giveaways. That allowed us to have a really good turnover margin.

We need to give them some room for error by creating more turnovers, too. Those things will be really important. We have the people and we have the scheme to do it. We have a second year in a system which allows for everything to click into place and go a little faster.

So these guys are excited about what's ahead of them. I think we have had a good offseason and we're positioned to make another jump.

Q. I have to ask you about Diego Pavia. He reminds me of (indiscernible) and the way he seemed to rally the team, the way he plays. I saw this in New Mexico State. I know you did for sure. That bravado he has, it's amazing. I don't think I missed any games at New Mexico State either. I don't think he got hurt. But that style taking on these big defenders, it's like Bobby Chacon the boxer. Eventually you take too many hits. Do you talk to him about self-preservation or is that part of the Diego package?

CLARK LEA: I got to ask you, a guy from Memphis and a Nevada hat? That's different.

I'll tell you, that's a tip to Chris Klenakis, who is our O-line coach, who was part of the origination of the pistol offense. If you ever want to hear about football history, take a trip to Coach K's office and he'll talk to you about -- he can single out plays from 1882. I was one year old.

Look, Diego, we don't talk about self-preservation, but we need to build ways in our system that do protect him, and I see that more as establishing a run game through the tailback. We need him to take over the game at some point. The way he plays is the way he plays. We can build around him to protect him a little bit and not give him the option to pull the ball.

If we can do a better job of moving people at the point of attack in our offensive line, we believe in our running backs. I think we have a good group of running backs that can become some of the best in the conference.

There is no productive conversation that comes -- and really there is no winning conversation that comes between me and Diego where I'm talking about taking care of himself in the competitive moment. He needs to play to his personality. We will protect him through our design.

As far as his just mentality and what he means to the team, these guys, I don't need Diego to be anything other than who he is. Now, we have conversations about how in his role there are ways from an external standpoint that he can be supportive of our mission and there are ways sometimes where we cross lines that kind of undercut the mission.

So this is a guy that's going to have a great finish to his career, great NFL career. He's going to be a coach someday. He will have a microphone in front of him for the rest of his life mand the world needs him to. He's that kind of person. He needs to be himself. He needs to understand how to support the mission.

When he is himself, it gives everyone in that locker room license to be themselves. There is one Diego Pavia, but we are a better team when every individual on this team brings their unique personality, creative energy, and allows it to amplify in performance.

I think Diego has paved the way for that. Again, I'm just grateful to have him for another year and spend more time with him.

Q. I know you just mentioned the running back room. I wanted to ask about Sedrick specifically, the impact he has on your program and how he fits so well with Diego.

CLARK LEA: First of all, appreciate the question and these questions about players from Texas. First of all, testament to the quality of football played in Texas; also how important that state's been to us in building or program.

Seddy is a player that he had to play early for us and it's hard, especially in our league as a running back, it's hard to grind out yards in the SEC.

We've been developing in the offensive line, too. But from the very first time we saw him carry the ball on our campus we knew that he had physical traits, mental traits. He has vision and balance and he's strong through the middle of his body. He carries enough weight to be powerful. He's athletic enough to hurdle a defender. He's shown all these things.

What's happened over the last couple seasons is you start to see the game slow down for him. We've improved in our front and we believe there are opportunities for him and the rest of the running backs to, again, establish themselves as featured players in our league.

But I'm proud of Seddy. He's someone that I've always enjoyed. I recruited he and his family into our program, so there is a baseline relationship there. I think some of our best moments have been opportunities for me to challenge him in front of the team or challenge him in a one-on-one setting where he has always responded.

I'm happy for him, and I'm looking forward to watching him build on all the progress he's made this fall.

Q. Last year in Dallas you said every player in the football building had signed up for what ya'll believed in culture-wise. First test, Virginia Tech game ya'll were winning and then you weren't. A lot of people, here they go again. Do you subscribe to the you can't have a new reality with an old mentality? You are a gentleman scholar. Ya'll start winning those games, and the Texas one was close, Missouri was close; what's the carryover for this year?

CLARK LEA: Well, I mean, there is proof of concept. You don't get to proof of concept without belief. Our team had belief. I don't want to use the word "expectation" but these guys know how to win.

Listen, there are games last year where we lost and we proved that we weren't ready to play to a level of consistency that would allow us to go further in our season.

But that Virginia Tech game was important for all the reasons you mentioned; yet it was exciting. But from my vantage point a little too exciting. I could have done without -- we needed it because it allowed us to purge our system and like actually step into action. What happens when you aren't mentally capable or mentally aligned to winning is in those moments you start trying to predict or project where the game is going rather than stepping into action that needs to happen to take it where you want it to go.

I learned pretty quickly at Vanderbilt just how damaged we were mentally. I would say that's probably been the hardest part of this build, is draining the program of that attitude. Also shifting the ancillary aspect of our program from a losing approach to a winning approach. That's taken time.

But I think at this point we can confidently say, hey, our expectation is to win. We know that winning isn't easy. We know there will be ups and downs. The way we impact the outcome is to focus in the moment. We have proof of concept when we did these things a year ago we were able to come out on top.

Q. From year one coaching at Vanderbilt until now, how have you had to evolve personally to allow for the success we're seeing?

CLARK LEA: How much time we got? Hour and a half here? I think there is -- you know, I think it's easy to look back and judge who I was four years ago, what I was doing, what I didn't know about the job and all it entailed.

But I actually think though I've learned and grown a lot. I think that it happened exactly as it needed to. There were things that I was hard charging about, separating from our past, again, beating back this mentality that had forever stained the program.

I was obsessed with it. Part of my development is learning how let that go and really focusing on, hey, what is the type of head coach I want to be and what is the kind of team I want to have.

Also will tell that you some of the hardest moments in this role -- and I don't need to go through them one by one -- but you think about that first year. My first-ever game at Vanderbilt we played East Tennessee State and we got to beat. And I mean, we got to beat.

I wasn't prepared for that. There was no version of this in my mind that I had had that as the starting point. I hope that's relatable. I think that's -- a lot of the best journeys start in ways that we don't think they're going to start.

I think about the Georgia game that season. At the end of the first quarter it was 35-nothing. I didn't think our team was competing. We weren't trying. That's hard to see.

I remember the sun beating down that afternoon and just it's like you get put in this position where here is your choice: Are you going to coach the team or are you going to blame the team? That's what you have to chose.

I wish for everyone to experience that in life. That's when you define who you are as a person. You get on the knee, coach the team, and got it, 35-nothing the first quarter, 62-nothing, could have been a lot worse.

So I think all of that was beating back my ego, and really it was a way of me learning that it's not about me. That ultimately I'm here in service of something. And also, without that, I don't know that I could appreciate these breakthrough moments we're having now.

It all fits together. So you can't only take the good and throw away the bad. It's like that's -- when I say full catastrophe, that's what I mean. I appreciate the question. Obviously I'm spending time on it.

My growth has been both the awareness that I'm not good enough to do it on my own, the beating back of my own ego so I can be in better service of our team, and learning how celebrate the breakthrough moments. For as good as you can feel in one day, you know there is an equal and opposite to that.

We have done enough learning. I think our team would agree we are ready to move past that. But yeah, it's been a great journey for me. Makes me excited for the growth that awaits me moving forward.

Thanks for that question.