Clark Lea, Vanderbilt’s head coach and E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Football, announced on March 3 that Steve Gregory is being promoted to the team’s defensive coordinator. Gregory spent his first season in Nashville in 2024 as an associate defensive coordinator and secondary coach. 

Lea served as Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator in 2024 but will cede his duties to Gregory, who spent time with the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions before coming to Vanderbilt.

“Inevitably, my attention is divided, and it needs to be as the head coach,” Lea told The Athletic. “I think I did a good job a year ago of really submerging and really just focusing on the granular details of the defense. But I think there’s a real need for me to be able to look back up and be the head coach.”

Lea noted that last season, for all of its success, was not sustainable for him.

“[Last season] was as tired as I’ve ever been,” Lea said. “There are other responsibilities I have that make this program run; if I get too bogged down with some of that, what I’m going to end up doing is grinding myself into dust.”

Nick Lezynski has also been promoted; he will now act as co-defensive coordinator. Lezynski has spent three years with Vanderbilt — originally hired as a linebackers coach before getting promoted to defensive run game coordinator in 2023. The fourth-year coach spent time with Lea at Notre Dame when Lea was the Fighting Irish’s defensive coordinator. 

Gregory and Lezysnki will have a chance to improve on Vanderbilt’s 2024 defensive success, a year in which the Commodores boasted the 50th and 52nd-best scoring and rushing defenses, respectively. To round out the defense for the next season will be Lea, a defensive-minded head coach, and nine returning defensive starters, including Bryan Longwell, Langston Patterson and Randon Fontenete.