With spring football beginning this week at Vanderbilt, Commodores head coach Clark Lea announced he is handing off defensive coordinator duties.
Lea appointed himself his own defensive coordinator as part of a total staff makeover following a 2023 campaign that saw Vandy go 2-10 overall and 0-8 in SEC play. The move was successful. Vanderbilt improved to 7-6, won the Birmingham Bowl, beat No. 1 Alabama, and recorded their most SEC wins (three) since 2018.
Now on firmer ground heading into his fifth season atop his alma mater, Lea will now focus on the bigger picture as a "CEO" head coach.
“Inevitably, my attention is divided, and it needs to be as the head coach,” Lea told The Athletic. “I think I did a good job a year ago of really submerging and really just focusing on the granular details of the defense. But I think there’s a real need for me to be able to look back up and be the head coach … because there are other responsibilities I have that make this program run, that if I get too bogged down with some of that, what I’m going to end up doing is grinding myself into dust.”
Steve Gregory will take over as Vanderbilt's defensive coordinator. He joined the staff in 2024 as a senior consultant and associate defensive coordinator after coaching most recently as the Miami Dolphins safeties coach in 2022.
The former Syracuse, Chargers, Patriots and Chiefs safety worked with Lea at Syracuse in 2015; Lea was the Orange's linebackers coach and Gregory a quality control.
Gregory will be Vanderbilt's fourth defensive coordinator in five seasons under Lea, and the program's sixth in seven seasons dating back to the pre-Lea era. Jesse Minter ran the defense under Lea in 2021, Nick Howell did so in 2022-23, and then Lea took over for '24.
However, Gregory won't go into the role a complete unknown. He took on more and more game-planning duties as the season wore on, and Lea hired veteran coordinator Bob Shoop as a senior defensive analyst.
“I wanted there to be another big-picture mind in that room when I couldn’t be there,” Lea said. “And that ultimately was the impetus behind hiring Bob Shoop.”
Gregory will be charged with continuing the massive improvement Lea jump-started. Vandy jumped from 129th nationally in scoring defense (36.2 points per game) to 49th (23.4).
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.