Expect to see Clark Lea, Vanderbilt Football walk Around with a Different Confidence at SEC Media Days

It’s not as if Clark Lea has been short of confidence as he’s stepped up to the podium at SEC Media Days over the years.

This is the guy who declared that his winning history-devoid program would be the best in the country “in time” the last time he took the podium in Atlanta. It’s the same guy that oozed confidence at the podium and in private settings in 2023 as he and his staff anticipated a season in which they believed they could become bowl eligible.

Lea wasn’t as declarative as he stepped to the podium last July after that potential breakthrough season turned into a 2-10 one, though. Instead, he was all about making sure the changes that his program made were noticed. He didn’t promise wins. He didn’t bring up the national championship. He just tried to get his program’s name out there and taken seriously like most Vanderbilt coaches have to do in settings like these.

He outlined the three areas in which he believed his program could improve. He noted that success is “seldom linear.” He wouldn’t declare anything in regards to his open quarterback competition. He just noted his adaptation.

“It’s a core belief of mine that challenges present opportunities for growth,” Lea said last year. “With that in mind, at the conclusion of the last season, I set out to understand more about our shortcomings. I approached every decision this offseason looking to answer two important questions: ‘What am I meant to learn from this adversity, and how can we use it as a catalyst to our future success?’”

As Lea takes the podium this summer he won’t have to do that, though. Everyone saw that adaptation manifest itself in wins over Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. They saw it in his players mirroring his “chip on the shoulder” mentality and their execution of offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s outside the box scheme.

Lea and his program won’t have to fight for respect in the same way they have over the years in this place, but they don’t appear to be walking into Atlanta as if they’re satisfied with stopping at the revitalization that they’ve pieced together over the past two calendar years.

If they did, it would go against everything they’ve preached since the end of their initial breakthrough 2024 season.

It would almost nullify Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers’ declarations that they believe their group has what it takes to reach the national championship. It would undermine Lea’s talk of his group not being done yet and the idea that their quality of offseason work is raised as a result of their high-swinging internal goals.

Those goals are set higher than any Vanderbilt football team in the past has realistically set them. Some may have said them, but they don’t believe in them like this. They don’t mean them and want to declare them like this.

As a result, expect talk from Lea and his player representatives to talk like very few Vanderbilt representatives have ever talked in Atlanta’s Omni Hotel. Expect them to say things that make people’s heads turn, but are calculated and have been deliberated upon. Expect this program to walk and talk in a new way on Monday.

Expect a group of four that lets everyone in the stuffy ballrooms know that they don’t feel as if they’re the same old Vanderbilt football program anymore.

If things go haywire in the fall, Monday could be a day that Vanderbilt wants to erase from the collective memories of everyone in attendance. If it goes well it could be looked back upon as a day that a group with unlimited self belief can look back on and say “I told you so.”

Perhaps Vanderbilt will make “THE” national championship declaration in Atlanta. Perhaps it won’t. It will be different, though. It won’t act like a little brother that’s just trying to get a word in.