Vanderbilt's Clark Lea Pissed Off By Comments Made By Nick Saban About His Program, But Didn’t Need Them

As you know by now, unless you don’t pay attention to college football, Vanderbilt shocked the college football world on Saturday night by beating No. 1 Alabama. As for head coach Clark Lea, he wasn't happy with comments made by former Tide' coach Nick Saban. 

One of the biggest talking-points surrounding the atmosphere at Vanderbilt has been the amount of opposing fans that make the trip to Nashville for a weekend vacation. For years, Vanderbilt has been the butt of jokes concerning their home-field environment, which usually consists of a large amount of fans from the visiting team. 

To the credit of the Vanderbilt administration, they've invested a lot of money into making their stadium more fan-friendly for the folks in Nashville wanting to enjoy some college football. 

But when it came to playing on the road at Vanderbilt, there has always been this stigma that surrounded the Commodores, as there are more visiting fans that fill the stadium at times. But you can chalk that up to the product on the field, as we've seen Vanderbilt fans pack the stadium when the team is good. Just look back at the James Franklin era. 

NASHVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 05: Vanderbilt Commodores fans march the goal posts around the field following a game between the Vanderbilt Commodores and Alabama Crimson Tide, October 5, 2024 at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This has been something head coach Clark Lea has been wanting to change since returning to West End, and I'd imagine there will be more Vandy fans making the trip over to First Bank Stadium after beating Alabama this past weekend. 

There are some things you just don't say if you're an opposing head coach, or even a coach that's been out of the league for just one year. While Nick Saban said that he meant no disrespect to Vanderbilt when talking about their atmosphere on game days, it's still a shot at the football program that I bet he wishes he wouldn't have made a few weeks ago. 

"But the only place in the SEC that's not hard to play at is Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have," Nick Saban said to Pat McAfee. "And that is no disrespect to them, it is just the truth."

Vanderbilt's Clark Lea Pissed Off At Nick Saban Comments

For Vandy's Clark Lea, he mentioned on Monday that he had not heard the comments made by former Alabama head coach Nick Saban. During an appearance on the Jared Stillman Show, the Commodores coach made it clear that he respects Saban, but his comments about Vanderbilt pissed him off. 

"I'm gonna be real with you, because that's what you expect from me. It does piss me off, because this is my place. Again, I didn't hear about it before. I certainly would have put that in front of the team, had I," Clark Lea said Monday. "I certainly would have brought that to everyone's attention, and I'm sure they all saw it — the team did. One of the things that's important for us though, is there are so many people out there that want to say something about Vanderbilt. We can't sit here and try to fight everyone that has an opinion or wants to be negative towards our program. We're gonna focus on what we do and how we do it, and over time we're gonna earn the respect of people outside.

"Certainly, I don't appreciate that being said, and I don't appreciate any time that our program is the butt of a joke, but it's our job to build something that's dangerous. That's what we're doing. I think the world found that out on Saturday. Unfortunately, it took us to Saturday to show that in a full four-quarter effort."

Even though he made the comments, the Vanderbilt coach has a ton of respect for Nick Saban.

"I've got a ton of respect for Coach Saban, though," Clark Lea discussed as he mentioned Saban discussing a win that he had at Michigan State over Ohio State that set his program up for success. 

But at the end of the day, Clark Lea made it clear that he didn’t need to fuel his team with any comments coming from the outside, even though he certainly would've used it before the game. 

"Again, I've got a ton of respect for him. I don't appreciate what he said. Unfortunately, I didn't see it in time to use it as motivation. But we didn't need it."