Clark Lea Eyeing What Positions Vanderbilt Will Pursue in Transfer Portal

Vanderbilt's head coach Clark Lea knows which positions he's going to pursue in the transfer portal.

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea watches his player warm up during an NCAA college football practice | Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

The early signing period for the 2025 recruiting class got underway, and Vanderbilt is looking to lock up their class and not have to focus on the prospect side of things before they get ready for the transfer portal to open.

The Commodores lost their battle to land their top target of the cycle, so Clark Lea and his coaching staff are likely now doing a final all-out blitz to get as many things across the finish line as possible.

That would allow them to focus their full attention on portal additions, something they are reportedly leaning into a lot more compared to their past history of trying to build through the recruiting trail.

Vanderbilt also will be going through bowl prep while the transfer window is open, something that is a new thing for this staff to deal with since they haven't competed in the postseason since 2018.

How they handle things will be important.

No team lost more talent through the portal last year, and while one of their current star players believes that might have been a bit of addition through subtraction, it's not how rebuilding programs can afford to operate.

The Commodores have to be aggressive in their own right, especially if that's the direction they're going to take going forward instead of primarily going after high schoolers.

The portal will open on Dec. 9, and it sounds like Lea already knows the positions he is going to pursue.

"Lea indicated Saturday after the game that Vandy will look to improve its depth through the portal while also adding talent at skill positions ... Edge rusher and wide receiver could also represent priorities," reports Robbie Weinstein of 247Sports.

That would certainly boost this roster.

Getting after the passer is a must in the SEC, and there was a clear difference between their success rate when they either won or competed in conference games when they generated sacks, and when they suffered their defeats when they couldn't.

Vanderbilt did a good job of making themselves a much more attractive destination this time around.

Lea is hoping they can build off this success to not just improve their standing on the field, but also when it comes to adding talent.

"It's no different than a year ago. The things that we identified we needed to strengthen, we went out and did. So we're going to do that with a bowl team this year, and we'll keep advancing on the goal. A big part of that's going to be retaining the guys that we have here and just continuing to improve them through our systems of development," Lea said per Weinstein.