Michigan’s football program is in search of a new leader after the firing of head coach Sherrone Moore on Wednesday afternoon. At this point in the process, several candidates have been floated by fans and pundits alike, but one that hasn’t been getting as much attention as he probably should is Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea.
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Lea and his background, he first gained fame in the college football world back in 2018 when he became the defensive coordinator
at Notre Dame. He served on Brian Kelly’s staff through the 2020 season before ultimately being offered the head coaching position at his alma mater, Vanderbilt.
Lea took over the Vanderbilt program in 2021 and has slowly brought the Commodores to prominence after being at the bottom of the barrel in the SEC for pretty much its entire history. He’s compiled just a 26-35 record over five seasons, but led Vanderbilt to a 10-2 mark and on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff in 2025.
He first got the Commodores into the national spotlight last season with a 40-35 upset win over Alabama. Each of the last two seasons, Lea has been named the SEC’s Coach of the Year, and Vanderbilt awarded him with a six-year contract extension this November.
The contract extension came to fruition undoubtedly as a result of the success Lea has brought the program over the last two years, but also because Vanderbilt needed to fend off other programs that would try to poach him during what’s been a chaotic hiring cycle. However, a school like Michigan has the financial resources and brand power that could still lure away most candidates, making Lea a name to still keep an eye on.
So why should Michigan be interested in Lea?
Well for starters, Lea is still young by college head coach standards at 44 years old, so Michigan could possibly bank on him being around for a long time. However and perhaps most importantly, he’s shown he can build a program from the ground up. Lea has done what he’s done in the hardest conference to coach in having to go up against the likes of Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, LSU and others.
Furthermore, he’s done his rebuilding during the new era of college football, leveraging the transfer portal and NIL to compete against some of the best programs in America. Look no further than what the Commodores did before the early signing period, flipping 2026 five-star quarterback Jared Curtis away from his longtime commitment to Georgia to keep the Nashville native home. Michigan shouldn’t be looking for someone that has to figure things out on the fly, and Lea certainly wouldn’t have to do that.
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows when it comes to Lea as a candidate, though, as some might argue much of his success is tied directly to quarterback Diego Pavia, the Heisman candidate who came to Vanderbilt in 2024. Lea hadn’t led the program to a winning season before Pavia got there, which shows he has a keen eye for finding a quarterback that can help win games. However, it admittedly doesn’t say anything about the rest of his roster or being able to sustain success over more than a two-year period.
Still, the potential could be there for Lea to be a great coach at Michigan. He’s shown he can drastically turn around a program, and with Michigan’s resources and financial backing, there might be an even higher ceiling to reach.
He might not be the top candidate on most hot boards, but Lea isn’t someone that should be ignored in Michigan’s search.
