"We do have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.” Candice Storey Lee Embracing Vanderbilt Football's Mindset

Candice Storey Lee makes an effort to get to know every Vanderbilt student athlete. Some–like Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia–call her Mrs. Candice. Some give her hugs after big wins. Some only meet her a couple times.

Storey Lee has particularly gravitated towards Pavia–and his program’s mindset–though. The Vanderbilt Athletic Director came into a department that had a narrative of “underperformance” surrounding it and has worked for five years to flip that narrative. So when Pavia and Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea speak about the “chip on the shoulder" mentality that they carry regarding their program, perhaps Storey Lee sees a bit of that in herself.

At the very least, she’s encouraging their mindset in her athletic department as a whole.

“Some people may call it a chip on the shoulder, I think if you’re prepared you feel pretty confident that you can compete,” Storey Lee told Vandy on SI. “I think we have the tools necessary for the appropriate preparation whether it’s the personnel, the coaches, the facilities, the outer resources, the community and we’re not done because it’s a continuing process. But, yeah maybe we do have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

Storey Lee has seen the fruits of Lea’s philosophy and has seen where the chip on his proverbial shoulder came from. Lea had never been a college head coach before taking the Vanderbilt job and endured three losing seasons before finally breaking through with a 7-6 season in 2024.

Over the years, Lea–and Pavia–have heard all the doubt in regards to whether anyone can build a winner at Vanderbilt like they’re trying to do. Instead of buying into that, they’ve used it to fuel their ascension towards building a sustainable culture on West End.

Lea credits Story Lee as his “ultimate teammate” as she’s worked to play a role in his vision becoming vitalized over the years, she’s quick to point out Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and his impact, though. If Storey Lee and Lea are going to get where they want this thing to go, they’ll have to have support and investment from Diermeier. Storey Lee believes that he’s already given Vanderbilt a culture change of sorts.

Perhaps that culture was subliminally involved in Vanderbilt’s win over No. 1 Alabama or its 34-27 upset of Virginia Tech in the 2024 season opener. Perhaps it was the catalyst in Lea’s program putting together one of college football’s biggest turnaround seasons of 2024.

“I think that we showed up and stopped apologizing and said ‘we’re going to chart our own path,’” Storey Lee said. “I heard [Diermeier] say very early on that ‘we as an institution want to chart our own path, we don’t want to look over our shoulder. We want to lead and we want to be confident in how we’re leading.’”

For Vanderbilt football to climb the figurative mountain that it’s never consistently gotten to the top of, it has to have leaders like Storey Lee, Lea and Pavia that believe in what it’s about and are willing to bet on it taking the next step forward.

Pavia has consistently put himself out there and has said that he believes Vanderbilt can contend for the national championship in football this season. With the program’s history, that seems impossible. Nobody within Vanderbilt’s athletic department wants to put a limit on what Pavia’s team can do, though. Maybe they’ve got a chip on their shoulder, too.

“I think we’re tired of what people thought Vanderbilt was,” Storey Lee said. “So, we’re able to show them who Vanderbilt is and what we want to be. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s motivating.”