Everything Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea Said After Spring Game

The Commodores spring game saw the offense win by two points, but there was plenty else the Commodores' coach saw in Saturday's scrimmage.

Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea gives a thumbs up as he walks into the stadium prior to the start of the game against the Tennessee Volunteers at FirstBank Stadium. / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Vanderbilt held its annual Black-and-Gold Spring Game on Saturday and the offense left FirstBank Stadium with a 40-38 win. Afterwards, coach Clark Lea met with media members in attendance and talked about the team's starting quarterback Diego Pavia's participation, as well as numerous other topics.

Here's everything Lea said after the Black-and-Gold Spring Game:

Lea’s opening statement…

Today is almost as much celebratory and ceremonious. The work has been done and I think we've had a really good spring. I'm excited about the team we have. You know there's going to be some roster formation over the next couple weeks here that’ll be important and obviously it's a part of our game now. But these guys have worked really hard. I think we know way more about our team now than we did a year ago. There's a belief internally here that we have a lot of control over what happens to us moving forward. And now it's about just aligning our choices with the team that we want to have, and that'll be in the smallest of behaviors moving forward. But I'm proud of these guys for the work they put in. I'm proud of them for the day they had. I thought it was competitive out here today and physical. I think a lot of times these games become a slop fest. I saw both sides being very intentional and some back and forth. Good to see some young players play as well. So, we got out relatively healthy. We'll check in on Ty Bartholomew and see where that is. But otherwise, I think we're going to carry a healthy team into the summer and get back some of those top-end guys that we've limited this spring.

Lea on the decision to not play Diego Pavia…

There were a few players that we wanted to at least give the option, and really on our end, there’s more to lose than to gain. Diego's had a good spring. We've limited him a bunch in scrimmage opportunities. I think getting through the bulk of the work was important, but there was nothing he was going to do today that was going to help us win in the fall. That was the reason. There were other guys that, if I had it my way, we wouldn't have played either, but some of the guys just wanted to be out here and play. So we honored that. I'm happy that we were able to stay relatively healthy today.

Lea on the Commodores’ other quarterbacks and how many will remain on the roster…

I'm not going to talk specifics about what that room is going to look like number-wise. Obviously, we're a little heavy at that position right now, so we're going to have to have some conversations and really look at what that needs to look like—not just for that room, but for our team to be most effective. We'll get to those conversations Monday morning. There were flashes of good play and performance by guys. I thought Blaze [Brlowitz] really had a strong second part of spring. He's proven he can do some things with his legs too. If I were going to have one back today, it would be the interception he threw. We’re going to need to give that more time to solidify. Obviously, we'll add a player in the summer with Jack [Elliot] coming in. There's no reason for us to make a statement or a decision about that right now. We have more clarity on where we are, but we’ll take the summer and fall camp to make sure we have the right guy behind Diego.

Lea on Pavia’s role during the spring game…

Those guys that aren't participating—we want them to be engaged. I saw a number of guys doing this. Diego wasn’t dressed today, so for him to take a role where he's putting his energy toward the field, that matters. He’s a leadership presence for us. We wanted him paying attention, helping the quarterbacks, and just being engaged in the day. I appreciate him for doing that.

Lea on the Commodores’ plans for the spring transfer portal window…

At this point, part of our management of the roster is going to be elimination because there are still restrictions we're operating under in terms of scholarship numbers. That’s got to be our first focus—shaping this team the best we can. The good thing for us is these decisions and conversations are getting harder because we have a lot of engaged guys working really hard to be part of this. Ultimately, we’ll see where that nets out. You’re always looking to strengthen your skill positions offensively. I think we've seen development in our young receivers. We want to make sure we have tools around the run game that can make it go.

Defensively, you always want to solidify the middle of your line of scrimmage. We’ll get better on our edges in fall camp because we’ll get guys like Corday and Lionus back healthy. They didn’t do much this spring. We'll take a look at the interior defensive line. We learned last year that if we're not playing at a high level and coming at the opponent in waves late in the season, it’s hard to win.

We'll see where we are on the edges offensively. Offensive line-wise, I feel really good about our top line. There may be a need to solidify depth there, and that’s partly due to gaps in the freshman classes we need to account for.

We don't need to be real active right now. We need to focus on the progress we’ve made with the team we have. I'm very proud of the guys we’ve retained. I feel strongly about the team, and we don't want to lose the chemistry or the environment we've created. Less is more for us—maybe a couple of surgical additions. Elimination will have to be a part of it, and hopefully no surprises in terms of the course being set for our players.

Lea on sophomore linebacker Jamison Curtis…

He’s been good all spring. He's a developmental player. He's reshaped himself through the weight room—I thought he had a great winter. He’s an instinctive linebacker. He’s got another year where we can afford for him to be developmental. I’d love to see him take a big role on special teams, but he’s proven to us that if we need him, he’ll be ready to play. Moving forward, that guy’s got a chance to be a really good linebacker for us. We have good depth in that room, so we want to give him time to develop. That’s a luxury we have right now, but he was certainly impressive and we're excited about his future.

Lea on the injury George Okorie suffered in the spring game…

I'm not aware of what happened to George. He's been dealing with a toe. It may have flared up on him. I'm not sure, but we'll have more information after this weekend.

Lea on Blaze Berlowitz’s development…

He made strides this spring, and I’m proud of him for that. He’s got to make great decisions with the ball. The play I want back for him is the interception. That was an opportunity for him to just puncture the defense, maybe get three or four yards, and stay on schedule. He forced a throw late to the flat, and it got picked off. But what I’ve learned about Blaze is that he learns through mistakes. I’ve seen progress through the spring. I just need him to continue that into the summer and fall camp if he’s going to be our number two.

Lea on Pavia’s best attributes…

There are so many dynamic elements of Diego’s game that we celebrate, but probably one of his greatest skills is his football IQ and the decisions he makes with the ball. That’s why we led the nation in turnovers last year—because everything channeled through him, and he’s very smart with the ball. Blaze needs to grow into that too, because once he does, I think he has the leadership DNA and the big-play ability to do what we need in that position.

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