Clark Lea Gives Update on Injured Offensive Star Player – si.com

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NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt football may get one of its star players back for the first time this season ahead of its game against Auburn.
At his Thursday press conference, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea continued his positive hopes of tight end Cole Spence making his first appearance of the 2026 season possibly this weekend in the Commodores’ first game of SEC play.
“He’s progressed. Right now, he’s listed for us as questionable. I would imagine that’ll be upgraded tomorrow assuming that we came out today okay,” Lea said. “And I think that’s going to aim towards a game time decision.”
Spence has been out the first three games of Vanderbilt’s season with an injury that started out as a week-to-week deal before continuing to progress into day-to-day status this week.
Before Saturday, Lea and his coaching staff will figure out how many snaps he can play effectively. It seems at this point the injury is not holding Spence back as he has now been medically cleared to play football.
Lea said that Spence has been participating in practices and taken real practice reps, which supports Lea’s hopeful feelings of a potential Spence return.
“He’s been running routes and he’s also done competitive work. He was in a half-line run yesterday where he was striking and blocking and moving,” Lea said. “So we’re really encouraged. Again, you always want to give room for how his body fuels in recovery tomorrow and what that looks like as we progress towards Saturday. But right now, I’m very hopeful that he’ll be out there at least for some reps.”
Spence is a very important piece to the Vanderbilt offense that it has not been able to have yet through three seasons. Perhaps whenever Spence comes back, the Commodores will take their production to another level.
Spence was primarily a blocking tight end for the past couple years while former Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers was the primary pass-catching tight end. This season, though, Spence is in a lead spot in the tight end room where he can have a heavier workload in the pass game and help out five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis on the field.
If Spence is able to return this weekend against Auburn and is able to play enough snaps to make an impact on the game, Vanderbilt has a chance to pull off a road upset over Auburn. The Commodores will look to move to 4-0 Saturday afternoon for a 3:15 p.m. CT kickoff time.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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