The progress is real at Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into its athletic facilities. It has a sharp young coach who's a native son of Nashville. Can the Commodores finally build a consistent winner?

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Clark Lea rises from his seat, walks toward his desk and begins rattling off story after story behind everything on his bookshelf. To call him a bibliophile would be an understatement, but he’s not here to talk about what he’s reading. There’s his Vanderbilt helmet from his playing days some two decades ago, and the painting that his oldest son made of him when the kid was a kindergartener and Dad was at Notre Dame. There’s a faded orange towel, a memento from Lea’s first win as a head coach, when Colorado State wore orange alternate uniforms and the Rams’ student section behind the Commodores’ sideline waved (and threw) rally towels.

Then Lea points to a faded hat that simply says “Journey,” a cap so nondescript that he just assumes it has something to do with the Sasquatch novels.

“This is one of my prized possessions,” he says.