Clark Lea, Vanderbilt Reach Contract Decision Amid Coaching Rumors

Lea’s Commodores are ranked No. 14 in the country heading into rivalry week.

Clark Lea will remain at his alma mater with a new six-year contract as he has Vanderbilt in the College Football Playoff hunt. / Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With his alma mater Vanderbilt at 9–2 and in the hunt for the College Football Playoff, Commodores coach Clark Lea has been a hot commodity on the coaching carousel. With rumors swirling that a fellow SEC program like Florida or Big Ten power Penn State could look to pry Lea from his home town, he and the school finally reached a contract agreement on Friday, before the Dores take on in-state rival Tennessee.

The program announced an extension for the fifth-year coach, shortly after reports emerged about a deal. The new contract is a six-year deal with “a significant salary increase” and “additional resources for both staff and facilities,” ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports.

Full terms of Lea’s deal have not yet been disclosed. Lea’s previous salary was listed at $3.7 million as of 2023, according to USA Today’s coaching salaries database.

There's no place like home! pic.twitter.com/j4rkI4sgcH

— #14 Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) November 28, 2025

“I am excited to be able to continue the work we started at Vanderbilt five years ago. Throughout the process of working through this extension, I have been overwhelmed with two feelings,” Lea said in Vanderbilt’s release. “First, a sense of pride in the culture and environment we have established at Vanderbilt. Second, a sense of clarity that the work is not complete. This next phase of the program build will introduce many exciting things, including facility upgrades and needed resources for our staff and team. These investments will go a long way in ensuring our program can level up. I am grateful to have leadership from Chancellor Diermeier and Vice Chancellor Lee, who clear the way for our success. Our vision has never been about one or two seasons, rather, it has always been about sustained success at a championship level. I am thrilled to be able to continue the mission, and I appreciate all the support from Commodore Nation and our Nashville community.”

In one of the busiest coaching cycles in recent memory, Lea is the latest coach to sign a deal that will keep him with his current program, joining the likes of Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee and Texas A&M’s Mike Elko.

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Clark Lea’s record at Vanderbilt

Lea took over the program at his alma mater after a successful stint as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. He inherited perhaps the most difficult job in the SEC—and historically, all of the Power 4—and got off to the same slow start that had doomed many of his predecessors. Lea was 9–27 with just a pair of SEC wins before the 2024 season. That offseason, he imported a number of key members of the New Mexico State program, which had launched its own surprising turnaround the year before, including quarterback Diego Pavia.

Forde: The Serape, Street-Fighter QB and Swagger That Made Vanderbilt an SEC Contender

The 2024 season was a proof of concept for the next phase of Lea’s rebuild, supercharged by the transfer portal. The Commodores famously knocked off Alabama in one of the great wins in program history, and came dangerously close to additional upset wins over LSU, Missouri and Texas. A number of those one-score losses turned in ‘25, and Vandy is 9–2 heading into its rivalry game against Tennessee with an outside shot at the College Football Playoff.

Season	Record	SEC Record
2021	2–10	0–8
2022	5–7	2–6
2023	2–10	0–8
2024	7–6	3–5
2025	9–2	5–2

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