Is Vanderbilt football working on new contract for Clark Lea? Here’s what AD Candice Lee said
Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea’s autograph is getting more expensive with every victory.
Athletic director Candice Storey Lee is well aware of that.
Lee stopped short of telling The Tennessean that the school is working on a contract extension for Lea, whose name has been showing up on lists of sought-after coaches. She did offer her thoughts on the subject, saying that her goal “is for Clark Lea to be my first and last football coach that I hire.”
“It is my desire and goal for him to be our coach for a long, long time,” she continued. “I will say that. It’s really a blessing to have leadership other people want, because it means you’re doing something right.
“The bigger opportunity for us is to sustain the excellence and then to have continuity and leadership. Together, we can do some really special, special work here and hopefully have an impact that will outlast all of us.”
In his fifth season with the Commodores, they are 12th in the coaches poll. They are 10th in the Associated Press poll — the first time in almost 80 years they’ve been ranked that high — after defeating LSU on Oct. 18. They are 6-1, their best start since 1950, going into the Oct. 25 at home against Missouri.
The nation is starting to notice. National television — ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be in Nashville for the game — and schools looking for coaches have, too.
How much does Clark Lea make?
He is the 56th-highest paid coach in college football, according to USA TODAY Sports’ 2025 compensation survey. He will earn a total of $3.7 million in 2025, before any bonuses.
Does Candice Lee believe Clark Lea would stay just because he’s local?
Lea grew up in Nashville, attended Montgomery Bell Academy and played football for Vanderbilt.
But that’s not reason enough for the athletic director to assume Lea would never leave.
“I wouldn’t say that’s going in our favor,” said Lee, who played basketball for Vanderbilt. “Just because somebody’s from a place or just because he’s an alum, we would never want to take that for granted.”
Did Candice Lee ever consider firing Clark Lea?
“With confidence, I tell you, no,” she said.
Still, nobody could have blamed her if she did.
Lea was 9-27 in his first three seasons at Vanderbilt, including a pair of 2-10 seasons. That’s more than enough to get a lot of coaches fired.
Why didn’t Candice Lee ever consider firing Clark Lea?
“I don’t know if this is the old athlete in me, but winning is hard,” she said. “It’s so fun, but it’s hard.
“You have to stick to your product, to your process, to have the type of success that we said we wanted. You have to go through the process, even when the outcomes seem bleak . . . And to be clear, it hasn’t fully come to fruition yet.”
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
