Vanderbilt Football: Commodores start first year of rebuild under new regime

Future could be bright for Vanderbilt Football, but they are in for a tough 2021 season in the SEC

Vanderbilt football has long been known as one of the toughest jobs not just in the power five, but in the entire country.

But until last season, Vanderbilt Football had never had a winless season. The Commodores were dreadful in nearly every facet of the game and that made the decision to fire Derek Mason easy. After interviewing several different candidates, Vanderbilt went with the candidate that most had pegged as the top option and that was Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea.

Lea was the obvious choice because he is a former Vanderbilt football player and is from Nashville. Lea also proved to be one of the best defensive coordinators in the country at Notre Dame and is known to be a really good recruiter. He made a unique hire when he named former 247 sports director of scouting and recruiting Barton Simmons as the general manager for the program. Simmons should help with the evaluation of recruits and help the talent level at Vanderbilt rise up.

While Lea and Simmons might help the program long-term, the reality is that this is a long-term rebuild that fans are going to have to be patient with.

There is not much current talent on the roster and they play in the toughest conference in the country. It is going to take years of talent gathering and making some good decisions through the transfer portal as well. I think that Vanderbilt can be a solid job in the SEC due to being in a good recruiting area, but being tough academically and playing in the SEC make it tough. The future is bright, but the present is going to require some patience.