Clark Lea agrees to Vanderbilt contract extension: Coaching target continuing rise with Commodores

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has agreed to a new six-year contract with the Commodores, CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz confirmed.

Lea has 14th-ranked Vanderbilt in the middle of the College Football Playoff hunt this season entering Saturday's finale at Tennessee and was a target for several major openings, including Auburn and Penn State. Lea is a Vanderbilt alumnus. 

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Vanderbilt's won nine games in a regular season for the first time since 1915 and is a victory over the Vols away from potentially making its first playoff appearance.

Lea's the second SEC head coach to sign a new deal in as many days, joining Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz, who was in the mix at Florida. Lea is 25-35 overall at the program including a 16-8 mark over the last two years and has led the Commodores to program-changing wins, including last season's victory over then top-ranked Alabama.

"I am excited to be able to continue the work we started at Vanderbilt five years ago. Throughout the process of working through this extension, I have been overwhelmed with two feelings," Lea said in a statement. "First, a sense of pride in the culture and environment we have established at Vanderbilt. Second, a sense of clarity that the work is not complete. This next phase of the program build will introduce many exciting things, including facility upgrades and needed resources for our staff and team. These investments will go a long way in ensuring our program can level up."

Lea's new deal reportedly includes a salary bump and promises of increased "assets" toward roster-building as Vanderbilt tries to become a premiere program in the SEC. Part of that resurgence includes recruiting, where the Commodores are expected to flip five-star Georgia quarterback commit Jared Curtis this cycle, per 247Sports.

Curtis, who stars for nearby Nashville Christian, could succeed Diego Pavia under center for the Commodores if they don't hit the transfer portal for a bridge replacement. Curtis has put up head-turning numbers as a two-year starter out of the transfer portal at Vanderbilt. Early Signing Day is Dec. 3 and Vanderbilt currently has the nation's 37th-best class, per 247Sports.

Lea addressed his name being circulated for other jobs in the carousel during a recent appearance on "The Paul Finebaum Show." 

"Look, it's what makes our game so special, is so many people are invested in it. They care so much about it," Lea said. "The head coaches become figureheads and they become thumbpieces to judge when it's not going well and kind of crown when it is going well. I appreciate the interest and the intrigue, I think, in general. I love being a part of something that will move people to a point of emotion that way. The carousel's not something you buy a ticket to. So, you're thrust on that thing whether you want to or not.

"This has been said a million times but when your program's having success, there's going to be interest taken in that. This has always been about building a championship program here, how you build something that's sustainable. I think we're in a great moment now. This moment, we need to leverage the momentum and take it somewhere where it can really be special. That's where our focus has been."

Lea, 44, took over at Vanderbilt in 2021 and his first three seasons were a struggle, including two winless finishes in SEC play. He's 10-29 against league competition in Nashville, but eight of those wins have come with Pavia as his quarterback when Lea made wholesale changes to his program schematically ahead of the 2024 campaign.

Vanderbilt won the Birmingham Bowl last season, the program's first postseason victory since 2013. The Commodores will be heading back to a bowl game this fall with one of the SEC's best records. CBS Sports currently has Vanderbilt projected to play in Florida as a 10-win finisher.