SEC Media Days: Vandy hopes big-money facilities bet pays off in football

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The campus at Vanderbilt University matches most of its home city’s downtown these days. There are mountains of dirt, ripped-apart pavement, earth-moving bulldozers haphazardly parked and orange diamonds advertising “Road Closed, Detour.”
Clark Lea has never seen anything more beautiful.
“There’s a lot of shut-down roads and a lot of dirt and a lot of construction equipment, but it gives us a chance,” the Commodores' football coach said. “It gives us the landscape to paint the picture of what the future will be, and in short order we’ll be talking about Vanderbilt football with cutting-edge facilities and best-in-class resources.
“When has that ever been said?”
Lea, armed with a fresh contract just before SEC Media Days began this week, improved the SEC’s doormat program from 2-10 to 5-7 last year, notching notable wins over Kentucky and Florida. That was exciting, but Lea made sure to point out he and his team weren’t satisfied — this year’s goal is postseason play.
What’s more exciting for Vandy fans is that Lea is earning more wins with the football team while the university tries to ensure it can keep winning. Long behind in everything related to its major athletic programs (baseball being the recent exception), Vanderbilt is in the midst of a major athletic facility overhaul which, when completed, will have brought $600-700 million worth of upgrades to the SEC’s longest-neglected campus.
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FirstBank Stadium, the former charmless concrete oval which routinely showcased more opposing team’s colors than the Commodores’ black and gold, is replacing its south end zone with a new 130,000-square foot building, containing a new locker room, training table, cafeteria and premium seating for games. The north end zone will house a new basketball operations center, new weight room, new visitors’ locker room, loge boxes and a new videoboard.
There will be a new football operations center constructed and an indoor practice field. It’s all under the umbrella of “Vandy United,” a bold step that finally recognized what coaches have said for decades — there’s no reason a top university in a vibrant town should be so continually horrid in the SEC’s top sport.
“I think the biggest statement that it makes is just support from the highest office on campus. I mean, Chancellor (Daniel) Diermeier has been such an advocate for our program. He’s a football fan,” Lea said. “We’re going to support you with the best facilities and the best resources. You’re going to have coaches that are going to invest in you every day. We’re not out there to swap pieces in and out every year. We’re going to build and develop from the bottom up.”
Bells and whistles in shiny new buildings play a large part in recruiting these days, and Vanderbilt seems to be aggressively shedding its previous image — that of, “Look, if nothing else, we’re in the SEC. So come play here.” Football has been mostly lousy because the commitment to football has been mostly lousy.
This project hopes to change that. Forever.
“It’s really exciting. I probably won’t be here for the majority of the new construction, but to see that, I feel like it’s pretty deserved,” receiver Will Sheppard said. “To see all those new buildings go up and start tearing the old ones down, it’s definitely improvement. It’s going to help us.”
But first the Commodores must clear some immediate hurdles.
FirstBank will only hold 30,000 fans this season, down from 40,000. The capacity will be 34,000 once it’s completed in 2026.
With that, logistical problems. Right now it’s OK because the practice field has been untouched. But they can’t use the stadium for anything but games, and as it stands right now?
Vandy will take the field for its Aug. 26 season-opener hosting Hawaii via … a mystery.
“We don’t have a tunnel to run out from,” linebacker Ethan Barr said. “We’re all kind of questioning what that’s going to look like. Who knows, but it’ll be fine. We’ll have a space to get ready.”
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The Commodores brought three seniors with them to Media Days, and they all relayed their excitement and regret. They’re so glad Vandy is getting with the times, but hate they won’t be around to experience it.
Yet, they look forward to what the project will be, and more to being the foundation of Vandy truly becoming an SEC football team. Sure, there will be a few bad seasons.
But not consistently bad. That’s the hope.
“I think when recruits and prospects see that level of interest at the highest office, it’s something that is different for Vanderbilt, right? This is a moment for us. What we’re seeing now is that vision manifest in physical transformation,” Lea said. “A year from now, two years from now, we’ll have a really tough place to come and play for an opponent.
"This year will present some different challenges for different reasons, but listen, when the jackhammer was going on outside my office it wasn’t always convenient, but by God it was progress, so we’re going to celebrate that.”