Vanderbilt Coaching Staff Continues To Be Overlooked in National Search
Vanderbilt is enjoying a well deserved bye week.
Even though Arkansas couldn't pull off an upset over Texas that would have kept their slim SEC title dreams alive, the Commodores have done enough on their own this season to qualify for their first bowl game since 2018.
Head coach Clark Lea took over a tough situation after things declined under Derek Mason to the point where Vanderbilt was winless in the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign before they made a change.
It's been a long build, having gone 9-27 before this year began, but in the fourth season with Lea at the helm, Vanderbilt appears to have things on the right track.
What could become an issue is if their coaches start getting poached.
Lea has done a tremendous job building job building a staff under him, hiring Tim Beck to take over as offensive coordinator and Steve Gregory to become the associate head coach and defensive coordinator.
Normally, whenever a team has a marked improvement from one year to another like Vanderbilt has had, programs around the country take notice, especially those at the Group of 5 level who are looking for someone to lead their team into relevance.
But, so far, the Commodores staff has remained under the radar.
That was evident by Morgan Moriarty of Bleacher Report putting together a list of coaches and coordinators who are likely to be "Hot Commodities" whenever the upcoming cycle begins.
No one on this Vanderbilt staff was mentioned or even highlighted.
That's pretty surprising considering the staggering improvement on both sides of the ball from last season compared to this one.
In 2023, the Commodores finished 103rd out of 133 FBS teams with 22.8 points per game. On defense, they were even worse, coming in 129th out of 133 with 36.2 points allowed.
This year, it's been completely different.
Vanderbilt ranks 67th out of 134 teams with 28.0 points per game on offense, while coming in at 37th in the country on defense by allowing just 21.7 points per game.
That also comes in an expanded SEC where they have one of the hardest schedules in the country.
Nobody in Nashville, and especially not Lea, is upset the coordinators aren't getting national recognition at the moment. That could result in them coming back next season and keeping the momentum rolling for Vanderbilt.
Of course, things could always change before the hiring cycle is completed, but as it stands right now, this staff remains a secret.
