Nashville, TENN--Clark Lea and Tim Beck knew it had to be close to perfect.

As the head coach and his offensive coordinator designed Vanderbilt's offense, they felt they had to be different. They also felt that they had to win in the margins, make timely plays and avoid turnovers.

Through seven games, they have.

Heading into Saturday's top-25 matchup with Texas, Vanderbilt ranks eighth in FBS and leads the SEC in third down conversion percentage with a 52.1 conversion percentage, it also has the SEC's best red-zone offense with a 96.6 percent scoring rate.

Lea's team is also tied for first among power-four programs with just one interception thrown this season. It also leads the SEC in turnovers lost as well as turnover margin.

That turnover margin has allowed Beck's offense to lead the SEC in time of possession with an average of 33:00 minutes of possession per game. That puts it at 11th among all FBS teams.

That's allowed for Vanderbilt to soar to a 5-2 record despite being 12th out of 16 SEC teams in yardage.

Vanderbilt isn't the league's most explosive offense, but it has found a way to produce as a result of what it's done when it gets chances.

"You’ve gotta be surgical with your execution," Lea said of red zone offense. "You’ve gotta stay positive in terms of no negative plays, penalties are crushing so as we’ve cleaned up our game that way I think we’ve strengthened our performance."

Vanderbilt has often strengthened its performance as a result of what it's done on third down.

That's leaned in to Vanderbilt's blueprint that Beck and Lea dreamt of long ago.

"When you talk about 'what does a game control offense looks like?' You talk about the broader strategy of the program," Lea said. "A game control offense is an offense that maintains possession of the ball which means we have to be able to convert on third down and you have to be able to stay on schedule to get those third-down wins and a team that converts touchdowns in the red zone."

Vanderbilt's broader strategy has worked to this point. It will be tested often against No. 5 Texas in what looks to be its toughest test yet, though.