"Brick Wall," Inside Clark Lea's Pregame Speeches, Competitive Nature
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NASHVILLE—The College Gameday crowd subsided, Vanderbilt’s players sat in the locker room on one knee and a hush of sorts fell over the open space that they sat in as Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea readied to address the room.
Lea’s group of young adults that has distractions readily available to them at every turn sat there living and dying with every word that their head coach said in the moments prior to their nationally-televised matchup with Missouri. Lea opened his comments with the idea that Vanderbilt had already discussed explosive plays, the run wall and turnovers–three things that have become a staple of his team’s recipe to win and were met by a “yes sir” from his team–but he appeared to know this his speech needed something more before his team went to battle.
“Here’s what I want you guys to f******* understand,” Lea told the team, “This is a top step of the f****** dugout team in here. This team brings only one game, a f****** an A game. Discipline. Respect. Spirit. Be who you are. Be who you are.”
Lea could barely get a word out without a “yes sir” or another lively response with the enthusiasm level of a lively elderly woman at a Sunday service coming from his team. By the time Vanderbilt was on the field, Diego Pavia had also addressed the team with a lively speech of his own.
The Vanderbilt head coach wants his players to take ownership of their locker room and lead each other, but knows that it’s his responsibility to rally the troops in the moments prior to kickoff. Lea has seen far too many Vanderbilt teams come out and get punched in the mouth. He’s determined to make sure that this iteration of his team won’t do that.
If they do, it appears as if it’s not a result of a lack of motivation.
“I’d run through a brick wall for him,” Vanderbilt center Jordan White told Vandy on SI. “He motivates me to play to my fullest and play freely.”
In Vanderbilt’s worst days under Lea, he was often accused of being apathetic at worst and professor-like at best. The program’s 2-10 season in Lea’s third season often didn’t offer a glimpse into his fiery side, but as his team has ascended to a 7-2 record and an AP Top 25 ranking Lea’s pregame locker room speeches have been showcased on social media as a part of Vanderbilt’s weekly routine.
Lea’s actions in those videos have appeared to change the narrative surrounding his persona and the idea that it was too dull to lead a program effectively. The Vanderbilt coach referred to the idea that his team needed to “jump” LSU “off the bus” prior to its eventual win over the Tigers before declaring that his team had everything it needed to do it. His remarks to his team prior to Vanderbilt’s win over Utah State indicated that a win would come from an attitude of dominance. Multiple others included his team shouting “head, body. Head, body” back at him to indicate that they were focused on the present moment.
What Lea is clear about avoiding in his speeches is external narrative. He’s always hidden from that, although he isn’t afraid to embrace the idea that he leads a group of “misfits.” The mere idea of taking a second to reflect on his speeches and the magnitude of them appears to be a distraction from the mission of winning for the Vanderbilt coach.
This is about controllables. It’s about response. It’s about avoiding anything that doesn’t matter. Perhaps the idea that Lea isn’t quick to gloat about the speeches themselves embodies how he speaks to his team perfectly.
“Motivational speeches are overrated,” Lea said, “Actions and behaviors [aren’t] when the ball is put down and kicked off. You’ve got to play the game.”
White is as seasoned a college football veteran as Vanderbilt has on its roster. The fifth-year senior has played for three programs, three head coaches and is familiar with seemingly every cliche there is in college football. He says Lea’s still resonate with him, though.
Through his first four seasons of college football, White says he never experienced the meetings that Lea conducts in the team hotel three hours before kickoff. White says the meetings start by Vanderbilt’s players “showing love” to each other and interacting before Lea rallies the troops with an “emotional” speech about what that particular game means to him.
Perhaps it’s not the classic ra-ra locker room speech that is often portrayed, but it’s a staple of this program and is something that Lea prepares for beforehand.
“Three hours before is a chance for me to connect with my team, that is not overrated,” Lea said. “That's a part of our routine and I do believe I owe it to the team to be ready to try to put some context to the events of the day and make sure they know that I'm emotionally there with them and emotionally ready for my role too.”
Vanderbilt football under Lea has prided itself on being intentionally different. It’s adapted to an offense that nobody else in its conference runs. It’s a team made up of underdogs that weren’t recruited elsewhere. They talk a big game despite external noise indicating that they shouldn’t be.
Lea himself is the biggest underdog of them all as a former walk-on fullback–and longtime architect of a turnaround of this perennial loser–and means everything he says when he addresses his team, though. Nobody believes in this more. His players appear to believe that what Lea says is something they can feed off of.
“He’s an amazing motivator,” Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers said. “Not only in terms of the way he speaks to us, but in terms of the way he attacks every single day. He sets a really good example for our team and he shows how much he loves us and how much he wants us to succeed. He does a really good job getting all of us to rally around him and we all love him for that.”
Oftentimes when Lea steps in front of his team, he rubs his head as if to unintentionally bring attention to the idea that the last hairs left his head long ago. Vanderbilt safety noticed the tick long ago, its one of many consistent tendencies that this Vanderbilt team has come to notice about Lea.
The Vanderbilt coach hopes that he’s not predictable, but values process and consistent habits as much as seemingly any coach in college football. Lea believes that real improvement is derived from setting goals and consistent process as one moves toward them rather than overnight changes.
His longtime teaching values have manifested themselves into patented Clark Lea-isms such as “head body,” “fundamental technical errors,” “the mission is winning.” One seemingly stands out to Vanderbilt’s players in particular, though.
“Relatedness is our edge,” White and Stowers separately say their favorite consistent Lea-ism is. The phrase indicates that Lea’s team’s ability to stick together and to relate to each other makes them a stronger team when things become difficult. It’s a saying that builds off of his philosophy that better people make for better football players and a better program as a whole.
Perhaps the correlation isn’t entirely direct, but if it’s a true indicator then Lea’s 2025 team is his best yet. At the very least, it appears to be the most connected one he’s had.
“You can tell that he has more trust in the team now,” Sewell said. “In previous years, the game was more about starting fast and coming out and playing hard, but now we know we're gonna play hard. We know we're gonna come in and star fast. So you can just tell in the speeches, there’s more trust. something that we haven't had in years and with the brotherhood it’s easier for him to lean back a little bit more.”
Sewell says that Lea still has his edge despite the trust that he’s built up for the current team he has. That’s why this Vanderbilt team is here. It’s the vision and the talent acquisition, but Lea’s raw explicitive-laced passion for this program and what it has to do in order to be successful is the hidden fuel to its ascension.
Lea doesn’t claim to be a master motivator, but don’t call him apathetic or without edge. That wouldn’t be accurate.
“I love watching the stuff they do on social media,” College Gameday analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. “When he gives a speech, how could you not want to run through a wall for that guy. I love how he does it.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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