How Steve Gregory is Gaining Comfortability in Year Two as Vanderbilt Football's Defensive Coordinator

NASHVILLE—Steve Gregory stepping up to the podium in the moments following Vanderbilt football’s Thursday morning practice wasn’t so unusual for once. It was standard, finally. So is everything about Gregory’s role as Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator these days.

When Gregory got in front of the cameras, he slipped on his Rode mic, greeted the media and went through a few questions as if he’d done this before–and he has. He’s done all of this before.

This time a year ago, Gregory was perhaps the biggest story of the beginning of Vanderbilt’s open spring practices. The former NFL defensive standout was the one to finally take the pressure off of Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea. He was the one that Lea viewed as trustworthy enough to manage his defense. Gregory had yet to do this, though. He’d paid his dues within Vanderbilt’s program, but how he’d embrace his role as an SEC defensive coordinator had yet to be seen.

A year later, Gregory knows all of that. So does everyone else. The Vanderbilt defensive coordinator led the defense of the most successful team in program history. He dealt with a number of high-pressure situations as the play caller rather than just an assistant coach.

Now, he feels as if he’s better off for that.

“There's a lot of things that you learn along the way,” Gregory said to the small group of media gathered on Thursday morning. "You're trying to adjust and mold the defense around what guys’ strengths and weaknesses are. So as a play caller in certain situations you know what to be expecting, field positions, field zones, things like that offensive coordinator tendencies and things like that. Also, just self scouting ourselves a little bit more throughout the offseason and understanding what my tendencies are as a play caller and how they'll try to attack some of the things that I may be tipping off or leaning towards doing as a playcaller.”

Steve Gregory and Clark Lea have collaborated to improve Vanderbilt's defense. | Vanderbilt football

Gregory enters year two as Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator with an abundance of tape on him out there at this stage. The Vanderbilt defensive coordinator jokes that his plan for the Commodores’ defense in 2026 is a big secret, but that doesn’t have to be the case in these type of settings anymore.

A number of returners–namely Nick Rinaldi, Bryan Longwell, Martel Hight, CJ Heard, Issa Ouatarra, Miles Capers and a number of others–headlining its defense and the same playcaller working to put them in positions to succeed. Gregory says he feels comfortable enough about the group to say that he doesn’t imagine making any large-scale changes to his defense because he feels comfortable enough with the returning personnel he has. Everyone will have to earn everything, he says, but Gregory has to keep pushing a number of the same buttons for this group to succeed if all the roles end up in the hands of the players they appear to be heading towards.

Gregory is still going to be Gregory. He’s not losing the accent, or the toughness or anything that makes him unique. Vanderbilt appears to be comfortable with that these days.

“He's a genius. He's a savant with the game,” Vanderbilt defensive line coach Seth Payne said in regard to Gregory. “I think he does a great job relating to the young men, just hearing them, being around those guys. He's a guy who played in the league, but he's so humble in heart and he's a hard worker. He lets his coaches coach…he gives us our space to help these guys within the system and defense. It’s awesome to see how far we’ve come under him as the defensive coordinator.”

Gregory’s defense was generally improved in 2025 relative to its production with Lea juggling duties in 2024, but it faltered down the stretch before snapping back into form in Vanderbilt’s late-season win over Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.

Vanderbilt’s defensive staff is proud of the progress it’s made, but Gregory knows that there’s more out there for this group. As a result, he’s leaning into what this group has ahead of it and what it needs to improve rather than the

“You're always trying to evolve with the times of football,” Gregory said. “Offenses are doing different things, trying to find different ways to enhance and schemes to manipulate coverages that are hard for the offense to see. So, we’ve been manipulating and doing some different things within coverages and some of the scheme stuff, but it's still a work in progress. I mean, right now we're focused on the fundamentals and techniques we need to play, play at a high level as players.”