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Tampa, Fla. — Vanderbilt has become something different. That was the ethos of coach Clark Lea's message Tuesday at SEC media days.
Long a laughingstock, also-ran or, worse, an afterthought in one of college football's most competitive conferences, the Commodores have a deserved swagger about them on the heels of a historic season.
Vanderbilt won a program-record 10 games in 2025. The Commodores also produced the Heisman Trophy runner-up and toppled rival Tennessee for the first time since 2018. They came a long way to earn their newfound confidence. But what, if anything, does that success mean for 2026?
"Naturally, people want to compare this team to last year's team," Lea said at the Tampa Marriott Water Street. "While there are similarities, there are also important differences — different players, different coaches, different leaders, different personalities, different strengths, different challenges.
"Despite these differences, this group has inherited something that previous teams did not: a Vanderbilt football program that expects to win."
The Commodores are not far removed from some truly dark days. They went winless in 2020, an embarrassment that brought Lea back to his alma mater.
The first few seasons under Lea weren't much better. Vanderbilt went 2-10 in 2021, 5-7 in 2022 and back to 2-10 again in 2023. Lea didn't mince words when looking back at 2023, which ended with 10 straight losses and a wholly uncompetitive showing in SEC play.
"That's called getting your ass kicked," he said.
But that low point also helped spark the Commodores' turnaround.
"That may have been the most important thing that's ever happened to me as head coach and to the program," Lea said.
It was after that season that Vanderbilt hired New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck, who brought with him a little-known quarterback named Diego Pavia. That's when the trajectory of the program changed.
Pavia became synonymous with the Commodores' ascent, from the upset over then-No. 1 Alabama in 2024 to last season's win over then-No. 15 Missouri with ESPN's "College GameDay" on campus for the second time. But Pavia, who played much larger than his 5-foot-10 frame, is off to the NFL.
Lea said Vanderbilt isn't going to replicate Pavia. He sees Pavia's absence as an opportunity for other players to step into the spotlight.
Running back Sedrick Alexander can expect to handle a heavier workload with Pavia, the team's leading rusher, gone. He's been efficient out of the backfield as a rusher and a receiver the last two seasons. The Commodores will count on Alexander to help protect their next quarterback, who might just be true freshman Jared Curtis.
"If we can establish a great run game in front of the quarterback, I think that we take pressure off," Lea said. "And we allow the ball to be distributed to the perimeter in ways that we can become the explosive team that we've been."
Lea has not committed to a starter just yet ahead of the Sept. 5 season opener against Austin Peay. However, Curtis, a five-star prospect whom Vanderbilt flipped from Georgia, is projected to win the job.
Bringing along a true freshman is a sea change from trotting out an experienced starter, especially in the SEC. Still, Lea is confident in Beck, who dialed up a ground-and-pound attack in 2024 and a more pass-heavy approach in 2025.
"The mission is winning," Lea said. "That certainly hasn't changed. Does winning look different from year to year? Absolutely. It's our job to pivot and adjust and to unlock the potential of each team."
The Commodores have demonstrated that their potential is much higher than anyone outside of Nashville could have imagined. And they're not getting too far away from their long-held identity as an underdog, even though opponents now have to think twice about a visit from Vanderbilt or a trip to the recently renovated FirstBank Stadium.
"We're still internally the chip-on-the-shoulder underdog that has a lot to prove," Lea said. "Again, there's nothing that we inherit from last season that has to do with any future win."
Those future victories are a lot easier to envision now that a standard has been set and a blueprint for success laid. But can these Commodores build on that? Lea sure thinks so.
"Last season was not an arrival," he said. "It was simply another step in the climb."
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