Being a Notre Dame football defensive coordinator has led to big things of late. There’s head coach Marcus Freeman who was DC under Brian Kelly. There’s Al Golden who was DC under Freemand and is now the DC for the Cincinatti Bengals. And there’s a couple of former defensive coordinators who are now successful head coaches at other schools.
One of those former DCs, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea had a heck of a season for the Commodores in 2024. Now he’s logging some big recruiting wins, including nabbing a top target over his former school as well as several other powers of college football.
Former Notre Dame DC Clark Lea pulls off major recruiting win at Vanderbilt
The former Notre Dame football defensive coordinator got a massive commitment from 4-star corner back Caden Harris on Tuesday. It’s possible that this is the kind of recruiting win that could be chalked up to the ‘Dores announcing their presence with authority.
Harris is seen as one of the nation's best as he ranks as the 82nd overall player in the 2026 recruiting class according to the 247Sports composite rankings. The same outlet also ranks Harris as a top-three player from Tennessee this cycle.
While the recruiting loss for Marcus Freeman is obviously one he would have liked to avoid, it doesn’t appear as if the Fighting Irish felt they were actually in this fight by this point.
There’s also all the success they’ve had in the month of April of their own, including landing 4-star defensive back Ayden Pouncey this weekend.
Because of that, the Notre Dame football program can just root for its former assistant coach to have success with the SEC school, unless and until the two teams butt heads.