Exclusive: Why Clark Lea Feels As Strongly About Vanderbilt Football's Linebacker Room As Any He's Coached – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Clark Lea and Vanderbilt football are losing a foundational player at linebacker with Langston Patterson’s departure, but Lea isn’t panicking. 
It’s nothing against Patterson, who will look to make an NFL roster after riding the highs and enduring the lows with Vanderbilt football as one of its starting linebackers for the last four years. It’s just that Lea feels as if he’s got reinforcements in the linebacker room. 
“At the second level, I feel as strongly about this group as I've felt about any I've coached,” Lea told Vandy on SI. “I mean, you've got a group of guys that have played in the system, that understand what it means playing the SEC, that have proven themselves to be productive and obviously, they need to be, again, part of our foundational success.” 
Vanderbilt has the fourth-most returning defensive snaps in the country on its roster and a number of those snaps come from its linebacker room. Perhaps it’s not the best in the SEC, but it’s among the most experienced. 
At the very least, Lea knows what he has. 
Bryan Longwell leads the room in a number of ways and is back to lead it again. Nick Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan could’ve taken easier routes to the field elsewhere, but they’ve stuck around and competed under Vanderbilt linebackers coach Nick Lezynski. The same could be said for Jamison Curtis and other Vanderbilt underclassmen like Austin Howard and Josiah Broxton. 
Lezynski also could’ve gone elsewhere to become a defensive coordinator or the linebackers coach at more traditionally prominent programs, but he’s chosen to stay and continue to build Vanderbilt’s linebackers room. Under Lezynski, Vanderbilt has retained the room and succeeded in its tireless efforts to build depth within it. 
Lea and Lezynski feel as if they have a piece in Longwell that embodies everything they’ve opted to build. Longwell has been a focal point in the room since his freshman season and has embraced Vanderbilt enough to get its logo tattooed on his bicep. The tattoo platforms Longwell to act as one of the faces of its program, too. In an era of constant player movement, Longwell clearly isn’t bought into that idea. Vanderbilt has his heart and he wants everyone to know it. 
Vanderbilt has embraced Longwell like he’s embraced it, too. It’s hard not to for a program that was 2-10 in Longwell’s freshman season and has transitioned to a program pining for national championships while he’s been a part of it. Longwell is as good of a fit for Lea’s misfit moniker as anyone in the program as a result of his light high school recruitment and evaluators painting him as undersized, and now he’s leading what projects to be one of its most reliable position groups. 
“The defense has to do its part in improvement, you ask about the guys that we think could be kind of production leaders, obviously, you're going to talk about Bryan Longwell,” Lea said. “He's fifth among returning SEC linebackers in career tackles. Sixth in career pass breakups, seventh in career interceptions, led the SC in tackles for loss or no gain. 
So a guy that's been disruptive, he's been a high havoc player.” 
As Vanderbilt believes it can trot out the best defense of the Lea era, perhaps Longwell and company can be the leaders of it.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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