How Vanderbilt Went From Winless Program To Contending With SEC Powers

For more than 30 years, Clark Lea and Barton Simmons have been close friends, first bonding through playing football together as kids and then staying in constant touch as they navigated their professional and personal lives. Five years ago, after going their separate ways following their days as high school teammates, the two reunited.

When Lea was named Vanderbilt’s head coach in December 2020, he hired Simmons as general manager even though Simmons had never worked for a team but had been a leading high school recruiting analyst and talent evaluator for 15 years. The Commodores were coming off a winless season and had long been arguably the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. That is no longer the case.

Vanderbilt is 5-0 and 16th in the Associated Press poll, its highest ranking at this point in the season since 1956. On Saturday afternoon, the Commodores play at No. 10 Alabama, the start of a stretch of games that will determine how realistic it is that Vanderbilt could qualify for the College Football Playoff.

The Commodores have already displayed their improvement and dominance. They are fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring margin, including 24-point consecutive road victories at Virginia Tech and then-No. 11 South Carolina. It is a remarkable turnaround from before Lea and Simmons arrived and even from two years ago when Vanderbilt went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the SEC. Since then, the Commodores have made smart hires, added elite transfers, developed high school recruits and invested heavily in the program.

“Our vision has been consistent throughout,” Simmons said. “What we said we’re going to do, we’ve never wavered on. I think that earns a lot of respect from people…You can win at the highest level here, and it’s not just talk. We’ve got to continue to prove that every day.”

Lea And Simmons Reunite At Vanderbilt

Lea and Simmons grew up near Vanderbilt’s Nashville, Tenn., campus and met in sixth grade when they were members of the same church. They played at Montgomery Bell Academy, leading the school to two state high school championships in the late 1990s before going to different colleges. Lea spent his final two years playing fullback at Vanderbilt, earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the school. He then worked his way up through the coaching ranks, working at six schools before becoming Vanderbilt’s coach a month after his 39th birthday.

Simmons, meanwhile, played defensive back at Yale. After graduating in 2004, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for a research and advisory company. But after 10 months, he returned to Nashville and took an entry-level job at Rivals.com, a recruiting website. At the time, Simmons considered getting into coaching or a player personnel/front office position, but he knew those roles often have little stability and require moving every few years to climb the ladder. Simmons ended up enjoying his media role and became one of the most trusted voices in college football, scouting hundreds of players each year and establishing relationships with coaches, administrators and agents across the country.

Through the years, Simmons had opportunities to work for teams, but he preferred remaining in Nashville, working for Rivals and later 247Sports as director of scouting and being around his friends and family, including his wife and three children. But when Lea was hired at Vanderbilt, Simmons chose to follow his friend and change career paths. As general manager, he was primarily put in charge of roster construction, helping identify players who could be good fits at Vanderbilt and in Lea’s system.

“It all came together in a pretty perfect scenario,” Simmons said. “It was like, ‘If you’re not going to do this in this set of circumstances, you’re never going to do it.’ I just got really, really blessed to have that present itself.”

Lea Sets High Expectations At Vanderbilt

When Vanderbilt hired Lea, he was considered among the best assistant coaches in the sport, having served as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator for three seasons and helping lead the Fighting Irish to two CFP appearances and a combined 33-5 record. His new job would be much more challenging. He took over a Vanderbilt program that was 0-9 in 2020 and only had two winning seasons since 1982.

Lea and Simmons, though, had lofty goals. They saw Vanderbilt as a school that was in a growing, popular city, played in the nation’s best conference and was ranked among the top 20 academic colleges in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, a combination that no college could match.

“I think the idea that he would have come here for anything less than the opportunity to win at the highest level would have been crazy,” Simmons said. “We both had a vision for this to be the best program in college football.”

They faced an uphill climb. In 2021, Vanderbilt went 2-10 and 0-8 in the SEC, losing its conference games by an average of 26 points per game. The next season, the Commodores improved to 5-7 and 2-6 in the SEC, winning consecutive games in November over Kentucky and Florida before ending with a 56-0 loss against Tennessee.

Despite back-to-back last place finishes in the SEC, Vanderbilt’s administration remained committed to Lea, rewarding him in July 2023 with a contract extension through 2029. The University had committed to investing in sports, as well, announcing that May that the Vandy United athletics fundraising campaign had already reached its $300 million fundraising goal. The campaign earmarked funds to renovate and expand the football stadium and other buildings and construct an indoor football practice facility.

Still, Vanderbilt regressed in the 2023 season, finishing 2-10 and 0-8 in the SEC, losing its conference games by an average of more than 22 points per game and each of its league games by at least 16 points.

“There was a sink or swim mentality around we either need to do this right or we’re not going to have a chance,” Simmons said. “We needed to rethink what it means to be a successful team in the SEC and how we’re building our roster.”

Vanderbilt Commits To NIL And Transfer Portal

As that season wore on, Simmons and Lea knew they needed to change their approach. Vanderbilt had almost exclusively signed high school players and didn’t have the financial resources of its peers to recruit experienced players from other college teams. But with the blessing of University chancellor Daniel Diermeier, athletics director Candice Storey Lee and others in the administration, the football team began focusing more on the transfer portal. The Anchor Impact, a third-party collective, raised more money to help the Commodores compete in offering Name, Image and Likeness deals, too.

“From the moment I got to Nashville, we were very united,” said Paul Grindstaff, who joined the Anchor Impact as executive director and general manager in October 2024. “We were a unified front, not only to raise money, but to make sure that the messaging was consistent.”

He added: “When we talk about winning, winning is not inexpensive. We make no apologies for that. No one should make an apology for that. You invest and you expect a return on your investment.”

In January 2024, Vanderbilt received a commitment from quarterback Diego Pavia, who had played the previous two seasons at New Mexico State. Lea had also recently hired two New Mexico State coaches, bringing in head coach Jerry Kill as chief consultant and offensive coordinator Tim Beck to the same role with the Commodores. Lea had watched New Mexico State upset Auburn in November 2023 and came away impressed with the Aggies’ offense with Pavia at the helm. Vanderbilt later signed two more New Mexico State players in tight end Eli Stowers and running back Makhilyn Young, as well as transfers from other colleges.

The shift in philosophy, along with Lea deciding to take over the defensive play calling duties, helped Vanderbilt improve last season. The Commodores went 7-6, their best record since 2013, and won three SEC games, including a 40-35 victory over No. 1 Alabama, which was the first time Vanderbilt had ever defeated a top 5 team. Pavia completed 59.4% of his passes, threw for 20 touchdown and just four interceptions and ran for a team-high 801 yards and eight touchdowns.

“As good of a player as he is, I think what Diego brought in terms of bringing a confidence into a program that really has no history of success in this conference, bringing just a toughness and a mentality that began to seep through the roster, it’s hard to hard to quantify what that meant to this place,” Simmons said.

Vanderbilt Seeks Consistency This Season And Beyond

Pavia continues to play a leading role. In November 2024, Pavia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, arguing that he should have eligibility remaining following the season because the two seasons he played in junior college should not count against his Division 1 eligibility. After a judge granted Pavia a preliminary injunction, the NCAA appealed, but a federal appeals panel on Wednesday dismissed the NCAA’s appeal.

The case hasn’t fazed Pavia, who is even better this season and a Heisman Trophy candidate. Pavia has completed 74.6% of his passes for 1,211 yards, 13 touchdowns and three interceptions and run for a team-high 294 yards and two touchdowns. He is eighth in FBS with a 184.6 passer rating.

Other transfers have made an impact, too. Stowers leads Vanderbilt with 22 catches for 301 yards, while Young has rushed for 211 yards on 20 carries (10.6 yards per attempt) and four touchdowns. Several other transfers start, including offensive linemen Isaia Glass (Oklahoma State), Jordan White (Liberty), Chase Mitchell (Liberty) and Bryce Henderson (South Dakota), defensive end Khordae Sydnor (Purdue), linebacker Randon Fontenette (TCU), cornerback Kolbey Taylor (Wyoming) and safety CJ Heard (Florida Atlantic).

At the same time, Vanderbilt has several key contributors who signed out of high school and have spent at least three seasons with the Commodores, including top running back Sedrick Alexander, receivers Junior Sherrill and Richie Hoskins and four of the team’s five leading tacklers in linebackers Bryan Longwell and Nick Rinaldi, defensive end Miles Capers and safety Marlen Sewell.

All told, about one-third of Vanderbilt’s players are transfers, according to Simmons. Going forward, the Commodores plan on remaining active in the transfer portal while also signing high school recruits who they hope could develop into productive players. Simmons has a staff who helps him scour the nation for talent, including Nik Valdiserri (director of player personnel), Kendall Lawson (director of scouting), Bella LePak (director of recruiting) and Buddy O’Dell (director of recruiting strategy and transfer scouting).

While Simmons’s main job is putting together the roster, he said he works closely with Lea and the coaching staff to get their input. He’s also in touch on a regular basis with agents and others connected to players who are considering transferring from their schools.

“It’s gotten to the point now where if you wait until guys go in the portal to identify them, you’re behind,” Simmons said. “We’ve become very proactive on the identification process. It’s incumbent on us to look at every roster in the country and just make sure we’ve got an awareness of what’s out there.”

On Saturday, Vanderbilt will be in the national spotlight when it faces Alabama, which is coming off a road victory at Georgia. The schedule doesn’t get much easier from there, as the Commodores face No. 13 LSU, No. 19 Missouri and No. 9 Texas in consecutive weeks. A month from now, Vanderbilt will have a better understanding of where it stands in the SEC.

With the House v. NCAA settlement agreed to earlier this year, athletics departments are now sharing revenue directly with players, with each school allowed to spend about $20.5 million this school year. Simmons would not disclose how much Vanderbilt has allocated to the football team, but he said it is line with what other SEC programs are receiving. Anchor Impact is also actively helping with NIL deals with companies, although those transactions are now subject to approval from the NIL Go online clearinghouse, which was part of the House settlement. Vanderbilt may still not have the cachet or history of Alabama or Georgia or LSU or other conference foes, but the Commodores are in a much better spot from where they were two years ago and seemingly on an upward trajectory.

“There’s always opportunities to continue to elevate from a resources standpoint, but I think we feel like we’re in a competitive place,” Simmons said. “There’s always an evaluation of what the best balance is and what it should look like, and we’ll be constantly evaluating that. But we don’t feel undermanned. We feel like we have a chance.”