Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea faces mentor Brian Kelly as the Commodores take on LSU in a game marks their first head-to-head matchup, blending respect and a fierce rivalry.

When Clark Lea's oldest son got sick about five years ago and was in the hospital for eight days, Brian Kelly — at the time vacationing overseas — called to check in on Lea's family. Today, Lea remembers that gesture when he thinks back on the mentorship Kelly, now the head coach at LSU, gave him.

For the second time this year, LSU head coach Brian Kelly will face a former Notre Dame assistant. The first round came at Texas A&M when Kelly's old DC Mike Elko got the best of LSU. Now, LSU is set to face Vanderbilt,

He took over the team’s defensive coordinator role, hired Tim Beck as an offensive coordinator with a completely different system, and recruited Beck’s former quarterback at New Mexico State — Diego Pavia — to run that scheme with uber efficiency.