Since the departure of Joejuan Williams in 2018, Vanderbilt has been plagued by issues in its secondary. Last year, however, the bottom completely fell out. Vanderbilt allowed 296.4 passing ypg, good for 113 in the NCAA (though not LAST in the SEC thanks to Ole Miss and LSU).
Of course, last year was anything but normal for anyone, but especially for the Commodores, who saw several starters in the secondary opt out, become lost to injury, or enter the transfer portal. As such, the results were fairly predictable, as this unit contributed substantially to a winless season. In short, Clark Lea’s first year task will essentially be to rebuild the unit.