NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has hired two more staff members, with former NFL wide receiver Earl Bennett as director of player development at his alma mater and Kaelene Curry director of mental performance.
Lea announced the hirings Monday.
Bennett was inducted into the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017. He played three seasons at Vanderbilt and left as the Southeastern Conference’s all-time leader in career receptions. Bennett was the 70th overall pick in the 2008 draft by Chicago and caught 185 passes for 2,277 yards and 12 touchdowns in five seasons.
He still has the SEC record for most TD catches in a single game with five against Kentucky in 2005. Bennett earned both a bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt and a master’s in education.
A licensed professional counselor in Colorado, Curry has been a mental performance coach, speaker and consultant for the Selking Performance Group the past six years. She also was a mental health counselor with Green Couch Counseling and an adjunct professor for the sport and performance psychology graduate program at Denver University.
Curry was an assistant softball coach at Northern Colorado in 2016 before moving to the counseling center from 2017-19. She was a softball assistant coach and recruiting and camp coordinator at Sonoma State in 2014-15. She played softball at Missouri-Kansas City.
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