LSU's Brian Kelly has high praise for Vanderbilt's Clark Lea ahead of showdown

LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly has been around the block a few times. He's now been at LSU for four seasons, and he has the Tigers at 5-1 and ranked No. 10 in the country. 

This week's opponent for LSU is the Vanderbilt Commodores, who were once the punching bag of the SEC. Now, the Commodores are 5-1, ranked No. 17 in the country and a real threat to beat LSU this weekend.

LSU Tigers' Brian Kelly respects the job Clark Lea has done at Vanderbilt 

How have the Commodores turned things around? As Kelly sees it, it all has to do with head coach Clark Lea and the consistency he's brought to the program through his messaging and standards. Lea went 2-10 twice in his first three seasons at Vandy, but he never got off course.

"So when you take over a program, right, and they took their lumps early on, it’s easy to listen to the noise and go away from what your vision is for your program,” Kelly recently explained, according to Thomas Goldkamp of On3. “Clark has never swayed from what the vision is that he had and the vision that he painted for everybody else there.”

Lea has taken Vanderbilt from a perpetual joke to a legitimate program in the SEC. Yes, he's done it through bringing in transfer portal players like quarterback Diego Pavia, who have fit the tone he wants for the program, but Vandy's success right now is rooted in the mental toughness that Lea started forging in 2021.

The Commodores are tough and gritty, and for probably the first time since James Franklin was head coach, they're confident.

As mentioned, they're also a program that other SEC schools have to take seriously. The Tigers want to be College Football Playoff contenders this season, but they'll have to prove themselves on the road against this one-loss Vandy team that's coming off a bye and looking to bounce back from a 30-14 road loss to Alabama.

Vanderbilt is worthy of LSU's respect this weekend, and you get the sense when listening to Kelly that he's full of respect for the job that Lea has done in Nashville.

“It’s a great lesson for other coaches,” Kelly said. “At the end of the day, you have to be consistent at something. His messaging, the way he wanted to build his program, was consistent, and it’s showing itself now.”