Everything Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea Said After Upsetting No. 1 Alabama

The Commodores finished with 42:08 in time of possession, compared to Alabama's 17:52, and out-gained the Crimson Tide 418-394 in total offense.

Oct 5, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea walks the sidelines against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

On a weekend of upsets, it was the game that stunned the college football world in Nashville of all places. Not only was Vanderbilt’s 40-35 victory over Alabama the Commodores’ first win against a No.1 team, but the program’s first over a top-five program.

Needless to say, head coach Clark Lea was a little emotional after fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts at FirstBank Stadium (and took into the heart of Nashville inc celebration).

Here’s everything he said during his lengthy postgame press conference Saturday night:

“Obviously this was a great night for a program, and, you know one that we've worked really hard to make happen. So I haven't been emotional to this very point of course right when I get in front of you guys I'm going to get emotional, but I think that the the emotions are a testament to the level of care, and the level of investment from so many people that are cheering for us, to start with our chancellor, who, you know again, I said this from the jump, but you know none of this would be possible without his belief in what we're doing and, God, his willingness to reimagine what this program can be, and open up resources and push.

Obviously to the best partner that I could ever ask for in [Athletic Director] Candice Lee. She's a great boss, a great friend, a great mentor, and few people know the level of fight like she understands the level of fight. Again, I wouldn't be here without her, from the interview till now, and her support, her belief, her willingness to set a path and open up a path for me to do the things I need to do to get this program headed where it needs to go. Again, I'm grateful and I think there's a lot of credit that needs to go to her.

So as far as the game went, you know, independent of the way I feel right now, we expected to win that game. It’s not shocking to me, you know, I was going to be emotional no matter what, cause it's a big win and to capture that stadium and as we're kneeling the ball out you know just a picture in my mind of what the dream is. That is the dream. That's why I came here. That's what I came here to do, and there are days where you feel like you're really close, and there are days where you feel like you're miles away. And to have that actualized for the moment, that was special and something I'll never forget.

Now, we expected it, and I'm proud of our team the way we battled. When you look at the game itself, we knew we needed to limit possessions, that's an explosive offense. It's a good Alabama team. I've got a ton of respect for Caleb [DeBoer]. I thought his guys battled too. I believe they had nine possessions. We said, you know, in the game part of our big three was a 10-possession game, so to get a nine-possession game means that we met that mark.

"That takes a team that's playing together. That's all three phases in interlocked and I’m proud of that. If you look at it whether we’ve held the ball for 42 minutes, that's how you win games like that against good teams. "

The second key was punch, counterpunch for us. We knew that they were going to get their plays, we needed to seek up at the right times. We needed the next unit, no matter what had happened before, the next unit to step on the field and to dictate the energy on the field, and we did that.

I thought the way we started the game defensively with the the turnover for a touchdown, I thought moments where we delivered stops and got the ball back, and obviously for our offense to counterpunch at the end and finish with possession like that was a lot of fun. I felt like we delivered that way, and the special teams, you know., there were a couple things that we want back from special teams -- that return at the start of the half -- I think even the kickoff, the squib kick there at the end, we want to puncture vertically on that one.

But on the whole, when you talk about the touchbacks on kickoffs, huge, the pin punt, they got them backed up set up a good complementary sequence that we needed, that's what a win looks like. It's a team win, that's what our program is. We have everything we need here to replicate that. We were a more disciplined team tonight. We cleaned up the penalties. I was proud of that. Hopefully there's a great lesson for us to pull forward from that. We need to celebrate this and enjoy it and savor for the moment, and then in 12 hours we need to turn the page and focus on Kentucky. That’s what we’ll do.

This isn't an arrival for our program. It's the beginning in some ways. I do feel like this is a breakthrough moment for us, but it only matters, it only matters in terms of the climb we’re on and the journey if we turn and get right back into our process. So again, obviously you know how much this means to me, I love our university, I love our city, I love our program. This is why I came back, it's meant to be emotional because, again, I've bled a lot into this and it's just feels great to be able to celebrate with the team that I love and care about, and I look forward to doing that more in the future.

With that I'm happy to open it up for questions.

Q: How happy are you for the players who have stuck with it, especially after all the losses over the years:

I'm really happy for them. I think, again, you know we don't, we focus on our belief and, we understand that anytime as a competitor … any more, I think, you know the world is set up right now where you can you can avoid discomfort pretty easily, and I don't take it for granted that I've got a team of warriors that keep their jaw set in adversity. I mean, there's so many lessons to pull from this build, and I said it after Virginia Tech and I said it tonight to the team, the guys that have been here, this is their fourth year with me, there is there's nothing I could say to thank them for their level of belief and investment.

This is my job, it's my passion, but I'm also kind of hardwired and this, you know, I love challenges and I love coming to work and I love the task of having to find a way through. I think for young people to share that passion and love for the challenge, it's inspirational, it’s remarkable. And so yes, I'm happy for them, I'm happy for all of them, the guys that we added to this program, I can't thank them enough for, again, their alignment with our environment, our culture, and with what Vanderbilt football is about. And I know they’re hungry for more too, so we’re going to go back to work.

Q: When you think back on specifically the end of last season when everyone's leaving and you're making changes, how far away did this feel at that moment and what is it saying about Vanderbilt and how it was able to beat the No. 1 team in the country?

I think in those moments … I mean, look there were some really hard days in December, and it was this feeling of kind of evolve or die, or adapt or die, and we had [to know] it's not good enough to just copy and paste in the process, we had to really dig in and say ‘What does this need to look like?’ It started with our belief statement, which was a great eloquent statement that we deleted and said ‘We're here to win.’  You know? ‘We're here to win.’ And so we're going to measure everything, every decision action, every dollar spent against what it takes to win, and so that reframed some of those conversations that were really painful, and really hard, because they also represented opportunities for my growth, our program’s growth, and it, actually, the obstacle became the way. It became the path forward. And I didn’t love it, you know? I mean, look I care about everybody in this program and to have … every time someone leaves it's like a piece of me goes. And I think that's a beautiful part of it too because that piece is planted somewhere else and hopefully they take something from the experience.

But there were days where it was left foot, right foot, breathe.  Stay focused on the long-term vision and find the path through. What we learned in those moments, me, our staff, the support staff, I think of [general manager] Barton [Simmons], I think of [Chief of staff] Ben Cauthen, and I think of Molly [Hart, operations coordinator], I think of Earl Bennett [director of player development], locked in my office trying to find that. What we learned, we learned the lesson in resilience, and resolve, and the belief in the vision can be challenged to the point where you can't even see it anymore. Are you willing to do the next right thing the right way?

And so certainly it felt like a large gap to close, and what we did is just focused on what the next thing was that we needed to do, that included hiring [offensive coordinator] Tim Beck, that included hiring [offensive advsior] Jerry Kill, that included getting in the transfer portal, that included Candace opening up resources for us, that included you know retaining the team that we could retain and believing in them. By the time we got to January and I had a team I was ready to go. And at that point it becomes let's have some fun building this thing and making it as good as we can make it. So that that captures a little bit of what that experience was like for me and again I’ll look at a night like tonight and I think I'm really glad that I had a bunch of people around me that helped held onto the rope. It's inevitable that there's more adversity ahead and what we need to learn from that is we continue to evolve, we continue to grow, we continue to push for more, and we continue to find ways to level up and that's what we'll do.

Q: Did the Missouri loss help make this happen?

“You know, I don't know that I would say that. I think this team doesn't need an opponent, and to measure themselves against an opponent to find confidence. They’re confidence, they're confident there is a belief embedded and inherent in what we do. I will say that as we've met disappointment, I mean look you, know we stand here in celebration, a few weeks ago we were on the road really disappointed. We're capable of both, right? We can play really well, and we can also play poorly. So the lesson here is playing to an identity, planning to a strategy, and continue to step into that belief. But the locker room after those disappointing losses has been totally different than what it was in the first three years.

That that's not a statement about … there's so many people in those first three years that were on this team, that are no longer here, that bled and sweat and sacrificed and believed. But the challenge has been getting everyone to do that, and it only takes a few people to pull the soul of the program down. So a lot of times after losses in the past, especially tight losses, it felt like, you know, just kind of a victims mindset. Whether it's at Georgia State or whether it's at Missouri, that locker room, the tone, the courage, the challenge of each other, that is represented something totally different to me. Obviously they were disappointed, but there was a resolve there. So I don't think we need a Missouri get to tonight, and I don't think we needed tonight to get to where we're going.

Again, you talked about margins and look, I mean, we needed to win that win in regulation. They were building momentum offensively, we needed that stop at the end. But had we come back, and we lost those margins and we came up just short, I still believe in where we're headed. So this is about you know celebrating a good result and switching gears and getting right back into process to go find some more.

Q: Were you aware of Nick Saban saying that Vanderbilt is the only SEC place that’s not tough to play before this week?

No. And you know, shoot, that just doesn't affect me. I don't have an opinion on that. I love coach. I mean I've got so much respect for him and I don't take any disrespect. What we need to do is is fill the stadium with black and gold shirts, and when we do that it will be a hard place to play. It may not be the biggest, but it is on top of you and it can get loud. I think this is a glimpse as to what Saturday night in Nashville can be. So I didn't know, I stay pretty well insulated in general, but that doesn't have an enough effect on me.

Q: There were a lot of big plays in this game like the strip sack, but was there a breakthrough moment?

I think the sack was huge. Yeah that was a big moment. Cam Johnson's touchdown was, I mean, it's all of them, right? I don't know that you can single one out. I think in some ways this game was won in the first quarter, when we were able to again score a touchdown and get a pick-6. But what I think the breakthrough was in terms of the performance was we played a clean game, and we played to our strategy. I have talked about this, and I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing me talking about, that this is all I've said -- it's like game control offense, point limitation defense, special teams win field position. Let's play penalty free and let's win the turnover battle, and that's what we did. So I think it validates that thought, with internally, and so now we take that and we copy-and-paste it and move it forward.

Q: You mentioned opening up resources. What does a win over the No. 1 nationally-ranked team do toward that?

Well, I hope it does a lot (laughing).  Look, [if] we just keep working on who we are internally, and we let that manifest externally. So what we're going to do is keep focusing on how we can build this program from within, bring the right people in, coach the right way, play the right way, connect with their community the right way, and deliver big moments and special memories. And I think people will start to pay attention. That’s my hope, but ultimately the night like tonight hopefully moves the needle for some. Hopefully the next time we're at home you get a sense of what what this can be in terms of Vanderbilt support for our program. I'm not bitter by that, I just … we have to play a certain way for people to take interest.

Nashville, one of the things that's great about this city is there is a lot going on, and we compete with all those things again to draw interest of the people that are in our community. Hopefully this team is starting to do things that create more footholds where more people will pay attention, and certainly when more people start paying attention I think I think everyone will realize that we're just continued growth of resources away from building something that really doesn't need to take a back seat to anybody.

I'm on record as saying the best program in the country, that's what I'm after. And it's it's cheap a little bit to bring that up right now but that that's what I said. And I think when I said it no one really understood it. But the people that know me and know what we're doing here understood. We're going to keep doing the right things, the right way. We're going to keep evolving and growing.  We need people to take interest and we need the resources, but we can get it done here. Tonight was a special night for me, it's that special night for Candice. Special night for Vanderbilt. Special night for my team. And here's to having more of these nights.

Q: That may have been the best your offensive line has played. What went into the game plan, especially in regards to that?

Well, I think, look, I gotta credit Coach K [offensive line coach Chris Klenakis], Dylan [Autenrieth, assistant line coach] for the work that they do with the front. I’ve said just how impressed that I've been with Chris Klenakis and his abilities as a coach. I mean God, I've learned a lot from watching him.

And by the way, as we revel on the ball being out, he had a gash on his forehead and blood was dripping everywhere. I think that's what you want your line coach to look like. His wife comes to practice, supports the players. I mean she's there all the time. It was fun to have an embrace with her afterwards and all that’s she’s invested.

That front, I'm really proud of the way we played, really on both lines of scrimmage tonight, and you can't talk about that without not saying that I think we have the best strength coach in the country [Robert Stiner, sports performance director], and the work that his stuff has put in to make these moments possible. I felt like we physically we were the more dominant team tonight. That’s a statement. These guys played tough, and we made it hard, and they got some players with their skill, and they were able to snuff out [quarterback] Diego [Pavia] a couple times. But, you know, we just kept throwing our punches

As far as the changes go it's about the best 11 on the field, and we got to keep searching for what that is. I thought, obviously, with the way we played that was masterful. We knew we needed a little more size at center. X has done a great job, he's a smart player. He obviously played really well, held up in there. Yeah, I can't say enough about our offensive line and in this league you got to win in the front. It's just not going to happen unless you can win on the offensive line and defensive line.

I thought on both sides of the ball we did that. I thought we limited their run game. We have to play better on the perimeter defensively, we will contest the space and keep the ball in front of us, and we can't grow tired of that. Offensively, I thought tonight we were opportunistic with our shots and I'm really proud of [wide receiver] Junior [Sherrill] for missing one on the sideline that I know he felt like he’d get, and coming back and getting a huge touchdown catch at the end. That's what this is about, but certainly a huge credit to the to the front, and I'm glad we have the coaches and the players that we have. I'm proud of them.

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