A 2-10 record wasn't good enough for Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea.

Neither was what Lea was seeing under the surface within his program.

"It wasn't just the outcome of games," Lea said in his podcast appearance with Vandysports. "It was the style of play, the way we were playing, the competitive nature of the team. There were a lot of what I felt like were gaps in our performance that cut against our identity, our process and our messaging."

Lea noticed that difference in Vanderbilt's 45-28 loss to Kentucky.

"That was when it first kinda hit hit me in the face," the Vanderbilt coach said. "There were things that were going on under the surface that hadn't quite revealed themselves until we played against Kentucky.

"That was alarming. That was immediately addressed but when you're addressing those things in season and you're confronting things you're doing it in a way to triage an identity that should be set in place through the offseason."

Heading into year four of his tenure, Lea knew that his program needed change.

"I don't know exactly what this is gonna look like but I know that we're not gonna stay the same. We have to change to move forward."

And change did they.

That shift has started with Lea's transition to defensive coordinator.

"I have loved that transition. It's reinvigorated me," Lea said. "I'm on fire to improve this program. I'm on fire to improve the on-field performance and the way we play football."

The transition within Lea's program didn't stop there, though. It also happened on the offensive side where he hired former New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck in the same role. It happened in the way that Lea got advice with his hiring of former New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill. It also happened at the strength and conditioning level.

"There was an overhaul that happened here to address a lot of the things that I felt like needed to change," Lea said.

"You're constantly evaluating those things. Coming out of fall camp where we started off with a number of soft-tissue issues that we never overcame over the course over the season. Those become like little miniature train wrecks and just continued to compound as the year goes on. To the level of connectedness I felt like particularly offensively where I just sensed that somehow the culture was getting undermined and we weren't playing with identity."

It wasn't hard for Lea to see those results.

"Once I kinda got a grip on it, it was easy for me to recognize the things that I felt like were out of sync with what we want to be and step into the changes that needed to happen to move us forward."

Vanderbilt's head coach recognized that the product he was putting on the field wasn't good enough. Not for what this program means to him. Not for the fans that have stuck by it.

So he took initiative.

This job will never be easy. The changes that Lea make are risky. But the fourth-year head coach is going for it.

That mentality applies to NIL, as well.

"What a great chance for Vanderbilt to not have to exclude ourselves from a game that's been played for a long time," Lea said. "Candace and I have had really direct conversations about what this needs to look like and she has not flinched at all with respect to making sure that we are moving this in the direction that allows us to be competitive."

Lea knows what it will take to get this thing where it needs to go. Now it's just a matter of doing it.