Everything Clark Lea Said After Vanderbilt Football's Tuesday Spring Practice

The Vanderbilt Commodores are less that two weeks away from it's Black and Gold spring game and the football program is hard at work preparing. Vanderbilt was back on the practice field Tuesday as they look to build on a successful 2024 campaign.

Head coach Clark Lea spent time with reporters on Tuesday after practice discussing the backup quarterback situation, a two-way player and his recruiting philosophy.

Opening Statement

"I think, just general thoughts, we're starting to get some guys back healthy. We're going to be really careful here through the finish line with guys that are banged up. We need to make sure that we have a great summer. Pleased with the day. We'll go a light day on Thursday to set up for the Friday scrimmage. Still, objectives coming out the next two weeks is to try to clarify the quarterback room a little bit, to continue to build depth, with the defensive line, in particular the interior d-line, we're going to need to find some answers there as we get to the third and fourth line of players to see who can help us win, that's going to be mission critical. I like the way our secondary's shaping up. I think we have depth and we're going to move some guys around just to experience at different positions. On the whole, those things are good.

"Offensively, I talked about the quarterbacks, the receiver room, some of those young receiver bodies, seeing those guys ascend here in the last two weeks will be important and continuing to gel on the offensive line. Hopefully, we're banged up at running back, but hopefully we can come out with some answers to build the down the line depth so that we can get through a fall where we're going to need to run the ball."

How are the quarterbacks shaping up behind Diego Pavia?

"I think right now, a little inconsistent. I think we've thrown the ball to the defense too often. There's twofold there, one we're playing better in the secondary and two, we've got to make good decisions with the ball. You want whoever ends up being the number two to know that we can be consistent, we can play through the other 10 players on the field and so that's what I'll be looking for. There's no reason for us to try to set that depth right now, I think we use our remaining scrimmage opportunities to really evaluate the room and see what we come up with."

How much could Martel Hight play both ways and how much of that choice is impacted by the other personnel in the cornerback and wide receiver rooms?

"I believe that he has elevated himself as a top end player in all three phases. We feel like when he's on the field for us he has the ablity to tip the field in our favor. A lot of it has to do with, it's almost like the wins per replacement idea, where does he have the highest impact and what does the depth look like around him? From there I think we set the slider for how many snaps he plays on defense and how many snaps he plays on offense. We've done some research, obviously we're not taxed with this right now, but we're going to have to have a really good plan to keep him engaged in meetings in both individual in both and obviously reps in both. I see that conversation going week-to-week based off the opponent, but also based off the performance within the unit he's a part of."

He wouldn't play the whole game like Travis Hunter, right?

"That's certainly not the vision. We would settle on probably anywhere between 60 to 80 snaps for him and that just depends on what we learn about his capacity as we go. Right now, obviously, the volume tax is minimal just because we're in spring. I think 60 to 80 would be really good. Let's say it's 80 snaps the split would be based off where he's most needed."

How do you feel like Bryce Henderson is coming along, will he be a first teamer?

"I don't know, I would say I'm pleased with the fact that he's involved in team periods. He's coming off injury and getting comfortable too. I think every day that we can get anything there is better than nothing, obviously. We believe in his skills and we believe he could be a top end player for us, but those things take time and that's really Coach K's land to farm. But we're excited to have him and again, believe that he has the skills to be a high level SEC player and we just need to give him time to understand the system and to recover himself and to position himself to compete to be a starter."

It seems like Vanderbilt is starting to finish second for a lot of high level recruits, how to take the next step and close?

"I think the next step comes with, we're going to take our shot at all the guys that we feel like fit who we are and can help us win. Finishing second anymore may just mean that you're a year away from being first. It's a hard thing to say, but it's the truth. What we do is we develop meaningful relationship and we build connection and we don't always win when it comes to the surface level things. It's just where we are in our build of the program. We're not going to win the facility battle, but we can win the people battle and sometimes we don't always win the resource battle, but we can win the people battle.

"Sometimes decisions that tip a little more transactional in recruiting, I think, when it goes well, great. We're happy for everybody to have success, but when it doesn't go well a lot of times in that second choice, you're looking for kind of foundational relationships that maybe you didn't value quite as much. It's never a bad thing to finish second. We're going to keep building out our board to make sure that what we end up with is a class that we believe can help us take the next step as a program. Many of those guys will probably be a year or two away from playing, but you have a vision for the future and where this is headed.

"We're trying to use the momentum of a good season. Just in general if you look at the guys we added, the early enrollee class recruiting off a 2-10 season. We've elevated the way we're evaluating and what we know about what we need. These guys are having an impact for us and so we want to do that again and keep leveling up so the competition remains in our program."