Notre Dame football: Clark Lea coaching his way into head coaching job
By Brad Weiss
Notre Dame football: Clark Lea coaching his way into head coaching job
Head coach in the near future
At 38-years old, Lea is becoming a hot commodity, especially with the way he has turned this Irish defense into a premier unit in the country. No matter the opponent, whether No. 1 Clemson, or a team like Pittsburgh, Lea is putting together outstanding game plans every week, and the result has been an unblemished Irish record.
It has been a wild ride for Lea to get to this point, as he started his collegiate career as a baseball player, before landing in Vanderbilt to play football. From there, he became a graduate assistant at UCLA, and then became mostly a linebacker coach during his stops at South Dakota State, UCLA, Bowling Green, Syracuse, and then lastly, Wake Forest.
Notre Dame made him their defensive coordinator in 2018 when he replaced Mike Elko, who he followed to the Irish, and since then, the program has a 32-3 record.
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To get a head coaching job at the college, or pro level, you have to be able to prove you can develop game plans that net wins in the biggest of games. Lea is proving that he can do that this season, and based on his age, and the buzz around him, his shot at becoming a head coach somewhere could be coming sooner rather than later.