Clark Lea is still saying what Vanderbilt football coaches aren't supposed to say | Estes

A year ago, Clark Lea said something that a Vanderbilt football coach wasn’t supposed to say at a place he wasn’t supposed to say it.

He stood at the podium at SEC media days and said the following: “We know in time Vanderbilt football will be the best program in the country.” All-encompassing as the statement was intended, meaning more than just results on the field, that didn’t matter. The line caused much scoffing.

Because it’s Vanderbilt.

And Vanderbilt should be made to know its place in the SEC football’s pecking order. In rare instances the Commodores haven’t, this league has forever been eager to remind them. Most years, if they aren’t picked last in the league or in the Eastern Division, it’s because they are picked next to last.

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On that note, Lea’s third season at his alma mater won’t arrive much differently than his previous two. Vanderbilt, as ever, isn’t expected to do much damage in a league that keeps producing teams and trophies that actually denote the country’s best each season.

Which made it more delightful Tuesday when Lea had the gumption to return to that podium at SEC media days — this time, just down the road from campus — and say it again. Unprompted.

“Vanderbilt football pursues success at the highest level,” Lea said in his opening statement, “and we will not back down from our mission to build the best college football program in the nation.”

Perfectly understated, and yet clearly stated.

Hey, why not? Why would a coach walk back or apologize for ambition? Even the football coach at Vanderbilt.

Especially the football coach at Vanderbilt, in fact, where one of the biggest obstacles — other than sheer talent — tends to be a lack of belief in what’s possible in football. If anyone knows that, it’s Lea. He’s from Nashville. He played at Vandy. He was motivated “to prove to the world what I knew to be true about the potential of Vanderbilt football,” and yet, Lea surely understood the challenge.

“I don’t expect people to understand where we are and what we’re doing,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t expect them to believe in what we’re doing. But I do expect internally to have the highest level of belief. That’s what I’m interested in seeing.”

He’s still trying to turn the ship.

In 2021, it hardly budged. In 2022, it did a little bit.

Mid-November victories over Kentucky and Florida were a big deal on West End. They “proved to ourselves that we can do it, and we do belong,” receiver Will Sheppard said. “At the end of the day, we’re in the SEC, too. We’re here to compete.”

Elsewhere, though, Vanderbilt’s improvement might have been the SEC’s best-kept secret last season. That’s partly because it didn’t lead to a bowl game. The Commodores went 5-7, but they weren’t competitive against the top teams on their schedule.

The gap between Vanderbilt and the national elite was painfully quantifiable.

It was 166-3.

That’s the combined score by which Alabama (55-3), Georgia (55-0) and Tennessee (56-0) beat Vanderbilt.

“Those efforts are psychological,” Lea said Tuesday. “… In the moment, the opponent told us we didn’t belong, and we backed down, I felt like. We speak about those things very directly and very clearly in our program. The Tennessee game was a little different from this standpoint: We broke down in phases that didn’t allow us to have the performance that we could have.”

The Commodores aren’t ready to go beat the best opponents. But in 2023, a bowl game shouldn’t be too much to ask. Or that Vanderbilt at least appears to belong on the same field with some of those best opponents.

Lea has quietly raised the talent level more than most in this sport are realizing. Vanderbilt has some pieces. It has experience in some of the right places – offensive line, receiver, defense – along with a legit quarterback in AJ Swann, who was promising last year as a freshman.

This team doesn’t look like an SEC doormat, but that shouldn’t be surprising.

Vanderbilt stopped being one last season.

“But obviously,” Lea said, “we’re hungry for more.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Clark Lea still saying what Vanderbilt coaches aren't supposed to say