The Commodores coach struck the right chord with his team as they looked to close out the No. 1 team in the country.

Vanderbilt posted a video on social media highlighting the win against Alabama, with coach Clark Lea's halftime speech being among the highlights.

Vanderbilt football is looking to avoid a letdown after upsetting Alabama when it faces Kentucky this weekend.

Clark Lea made it through one sentence of his opening statement before choking up. He had just led Vanderbilt football to a 40-35 win over Alabama, the first win over an AP No. 1 ranked team in school history. Not only had the Commodores never beaten a No. 1 team, they'd never even beat a top-5 team on the field.

For Kelly, who joined Lea in the SEC the following season in 2022 when he took the LSU job, it was a source of pride to watch Lea put Vandy on the college football map with that victory. Kelly joined “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Monday to talk about a lot of things, and one of the topics was certainly Lea and Vanderbilt.

Well, for one day, the Commodores toppled one of the conferences best, Alabama, as they held off the Crimson Tide at home to win 40-35 in the biggest upset across NCAA college football during Week 6. The victory improves Vandy’s record to 3-2, while the No. 2 ranked team in the US LBM Coaches Poll is bound to take a tumble.

Lea and his staff executed a perfect game plan to beat Alabama, severely limiting the Crimson Tide’s possessions. The Commodores didn’t make any major mistakes, and were able to force just enough of them from UA to secure one of the biggest wins in program history, their first over the Crimson Tide since 1984.

Vanderbilt football was named the Cheez-It National Team of the Week and Clark Lea named Dodd Trophy National Coach of the Week after beating Alabama.

The Vanderbilt Commodores have never beaten a No. 1 team in football. A very fast start has put them in position to do just that.

Even though it's been almost a week since Vanderbilt upset Alabama, the college football world is still buzzing about it. Vanderbilt crushed Alabama's defense and put up 40 points in a five-point victory in Nashville.