Exclusive: How Vanderbilt Football Coach Clark Lea is Driven By Iowa Loss – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Clark Lea walks up the stairs, turns left as he walks through the second floor lobby of Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center and sees the trophy case parallel to the outlook of Vanderbilt’s practice field. When he does, he notices something is missing. 
There’s a Birmingham Bowl trophy prominently displayed on the ledge overlooking the practice field, but there’s nothing to commemorate what Lea calls the best team in Vanderbilt football history. That 10-3 Vanderbilt team–which lost the ReliaQuest Bowl to Iowa–was never able to hold up a trophy. That irks Lea. 
That group felt destined to do something significant to end this all. But, Lea was instead forced to deliver the obituary on his best team yet as he went to the podium in the basement of Raymond James Stadium. The world, Lea’s world have kept on spinning since, but sat with that reality often since Dec. 31. 
“Honestly, to not end the season with a win when you're going to the bowl game is so frustrating,” Lea told Vandy on SI. “I've always known that, but it's the first time I’ve experienced that as a head coach. Scrutinizing our schedules and just thinking about how to best prepare the team for a December 31 game, I think that's gonna be important as we continue our push for playoff football.” 
The question of long-term sustainability was one that surrounded that particular team down the stretch of that season–which Lea had changed his systems to accommodate and had been preparing this team for with messaging around the Vanderbilt facility that read ‘win in November.’ Lea says in hindsight that his group’s two best halves of the season came in November against Tennessee and Kentucky–which means that his work was worthwhile–but he now has a new goal to push forward towards. 
Lea says he felt like his team “didn’t start the game well” against Iowa and that the slow start it endured put it in a position that was difficult to battle back from down the stretch. Vanderbilt scored 24 second-half points in that game, but was scoreless in the first quarter and was down 14-3 at the half. The Commodores went on to lose that game 34-27. 
No trophy. No celebration. No confetti. Just a talk about how great this group was and the bitter ending to a season that shouldn’t have had one. 
“In the days following, you're disappointed,” Lea said. “Being with the team afterwards is hard because you know everyone's emotional and disappointed, but it's more about walking into and not having a trophy in the lobby. There are things that we don't get to enjoy through this off-season that we did a year ago that were a lot of fun.” 
Lea says that the disappointment his group endured prompted him to scrutinize the schedule that his team put together leading up to its trip to Tampa. Lea is operating under the reality that this program still has to win in and operate in the margins. It lost a margin with its prep that week, it feels. 
Vanderbilt took four days off around Christmas day in order to allow its players to go home and celebrate the holiday. Lea says that the move felt right at the time because it allowed for a break in a long season, but that four days away was too many in retrospect. Vanderbilt lost too much of its rhythm. It didn’t quite have the same burst that it did prior to those four days. 
Now, as Vanderbilt aims to make a push towards a College Football Playoff berth–or at least another bowl berth–it’s going to approach things differently as it approaches is preparation process. Lea didn’t explicitly say that Vanderbilt’s ReliaQuest Bowl loss puts a chip on his shoulder, but his actions indicate as much. Best believe that as the postseason rolls around in 2026, Lea won't be giving as much room for cushion.
“I think there's a lot of things we can look back and say we did this well and certainly some growth points from 24 to 25,” Lea said,  “The challenge this year becomes not just what we learned from last year but also, how were you know how we're building this In a new way.”
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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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