Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea shares thoughts on Alabama, QB situation

On3 imageby:Clint Lamb09/21/22

ClintRLamb

On Wednesday, Vanderbilt head football coach Clark Lea spoke to the media during the weekly SEC Coaches Teleconference. With the Commodores set to visit Tuscaloosa this weekend to play the Crimson Tide, Lea was asked a lot of questions about Nick Saban’s program.

Below, we’ve included everything Lea said during his 10-minute media availability.

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Opening statement…

“Obviously, this weekend being our first SEC game against Alabama. Coach Saban’s built a great program there, and they’ve been able to sustain the highest level of performance for a long time. They present a unique challenge, but we still maintain focus on us. This is about Vanderbilt learning how to play to an identity. It’s about us finding our highest level as a team. I’m excited for this group to have a chance to do that this weekend, and we’ll keep the focus on us and what we’re doing. A lot to build off of here in the early parts of the season, but also, a lot of growth ahead of us to get where we wanna go.”

On running the football against Alabama’s defense…

“The Alabama defense is a challenge. Each week, you kind of look at, within your identity, the things you can do to help get a run game going against an opponent and where maybe they have deficiencies or weaknesses. When you play against a good team and a good program, you don’t deviate from your identity, you find the answers within what you do. Part of that’s gonna be the ability to loosen the box us. Part of that’s gonna be the ability to dial up run plays that attack their structure. Certainly, we know that that group has the ability to win up front, and so we have to do things that challenge that ability down in and down out. That’s the expectation for us. To have success on offense is about staying in rhythm and staying in front of the chains. Early-down success will be critical, and that means establishing a run game. We’ll design to do that knowing that we have a formidable opponent, but we’re excited to compete against them.”

On Alabama linebacker Will Anderson…

“He’s a game-changing player. Obviously, his pass-rush abilities are well-documented. He’s got a physical style in the run game. And he really allows them to do some things in coverage that – through gap cancellation, his ability to play through the tackle and cancel the B gap and also hold the C gap and slash off and make plays on the ball – allows them to commit more of their secondary to coverage and take those guys out of conflict. So he controls the game. His impact in coverage is not just about shortening the down, it’s also about, again, taking the pressure, the run-pass conflict off the players behind because he’s good enough to go 2-for-1. So we’re gonna be aware of him and aware of where he is, and I think every team that plays against Alabama has to key on him and know that, each snap, he has the ability to make a difference on his own.”

On Vanderbilt’s QB situation against Alabama…

“Right now, the quarterback situation is that AJ Swann is our starter, and we felt like he did enough in that Northern (Illinois) game. He did what we expected him to do. He came out, he managed the offense well, he was able to distribute the ball and get our playmakers going. Obviously, we felt like he also made some game-changing plays there late. We wanna watch him and support him in building on that performance. Anytime that you’re starting a freshman, especially at the quarterback position, you need to be willing to give enough leash there to play through mistakes… There’s gonna be some games and some plays that he’s gonna have to learn through, but we feel confident that he can continue to grow this offense and lead the offense. And we’re excited for him to do that.” 


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