Aria Gerson, Nashville TennesseanTue, November 25, 2025 at 8:13 PM UTC·1 min readClark Lea did not directly answer a question about the status of a potential extension for the Vanderbilt football coach when asked in his weekly press conference Nov. 25.
Lea has not yet agreed to a new deal with the 12th-ranked Commodores (9-2, 5-2 SEC) set to face Tennessee (8-3, 4-3) at Neyland Stadium on Nov. 29 (2:30 p.m. CT, ESPN). Several high-profile programs, including Penn State, Auburn, Florida and LSU have openings for a new coach.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"My focus is on Tennessee and on finishing the season the right way," Lea said. "I owe that to these players and the staff that put so much into this. All that stuff becomes part of the background noise that we have to be really disciplined not to allow that to seep in, and does it matter? Yeah, it does matter, but this is about compartmentalization and setting priorities. And the priority is finishing this 12th climb and feeling like we did everything we possibly could to position our program for the goals that we have.
" ... I tend to believe that when you take care of the things that you control, the things that you don't control tend to take care of themselves. There's a part of this that is my responsibility, that's the performance continuing, and there's a large part of it that I actually don't have control over."
Lea most recently signed an extension prior to the 2023 season. In the 2023 calendar year, Lea made just over $3.7 million, including bonuses. More recent payment figures are not available.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Clark Lea said about Vanderbilt football extension status
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