Sounds of construction have been everywhere in and around Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium this summer, distinct and separate.

The first are typical of what you’d expect during the ongoing $300 million Vandy United renovation project that has included removing end zone seats and the giant video board – jackhammering, pounding, trucks beeping and bulldozers digging as a mixture of machines and men in hard hats go about their business.

Vanderbilt’s other rebuilding project is the one taking place on the field with third-year coach Clark Lea at the helm of the Commodores – or Team 3, as he dubs it.

Those construction sounds during preseason practice and scrimmages have included coaches shouting, blocking sleds groaning, whistles tweeting and pads popping as sweat-soaked players prepare to launch the 2023 season Saturday night against Hawaii (6:30 p.m., SEC Network).

“I want everyone we play against to leave the field having learned something about themselves because that Vanderbilt group is really tough and relentless and never stops and also has the weapons to be dangerous,” Lea says.

“We’re a work in progress that way. A year ago we were inconsistent with how we showed up. This year we’ll be a little further along. By the time Texas comes to town (in 2024 when the SEC expands to 16 teams), hopefully we’ll be ready to play Vanderbilt football from the first snap to the last.”

Saturday’s game will give the nation its first look at Vandy’s ongoing building projects, on and off the field.

Ethan Barr, a 6-3, 245-pound senior linebacker from Flower Mound, Texas, says it’s exciting for the Commodores to play in the first major college game of the season.

“It’s so cool. It’s awesome that we get to be in the spotlight that Saturday and be the only game on television,” Barr says. “We are really looking forward to it … excited to see what the season brings for us and excited to make big things happen this year.”

Senior wide receiver Will Sheppard, a 6-3, 198-pounder from Mandeville, Louisiana, says he is “definitely excited” about playing in the week zero opener.

“Everybody is just antsy, ready for college football season. So everybody is going to be tuned in and being the first SEC team, I think we’re looking forward to it and trying to start off the season with a good note,” Sheppard says.

The Commodores rolled 63-10 at Hawaii in last season’s opener en route to a 5-7 record. A portion of ticket proceeds will go to the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund for victims of the recent wildfires that destroyed island communities.

Stadium capacity this year has been reduced by nearly 12,000, from 40,350 to 28,500, officials say. Candice Storey Lee, vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletic director, says sacrifices now made by the fans, coaches and athletes will boost the program’s long-term growth.

“As Team 3 builds on the foundation put in place on the field, we continue building on the foundation you make possible by supporting Vandy United. We’re in this together,” she tells fans.

Here’s a deeper look at what Vanderbilt is doing on and off the field to improve both its football program and facilities.

Getting to the game

First things first. From a fans’ perspective, it’s going to take a lot of patience and planning to attend games this fall – especially for fans of visiting teams. While school officials have done their best to provide detailed information and updates, it also has the potential to be a nightmare.

There are road closures all around the stadium, fans will have to follow walking routes to get to their seating sections and the entrances/exits to the stadium also have changed.

Specific entrances for seating location(s) will be visible on digital tickets. And information is supposed to be available in parking lots and Vandyville tailgating areas and parking lots on how to enter/leave the stadium, find seats and directions to concessions and rest areas.

Fans are encouraged to download the Vanderbilt Athletics app (www.vucommodores.com/gamedayapp), visit the Construction Central page (www.vucommodores.com/construction) and arrive early to each game.

For his part, Lea promises fans the pains endured this season will be worth the wait.

Vanderbilt’s familiar horseshoe stadium has been reduced to two side sections and from 40,350 seats to 28,500 during renovation, which should be complete in time for the 2024 season.

-- Photo Courtesy Of Vanderbilt Athletics

“To me, too, as a fan, this is a great moment. There will never be another year for Vanderbilt where we’ll have this level of construction going on on our football stadium,” Lea says. “Let’s embrace it for what it is, and it’s a launching point for us into our future, and let’s have fun with it.”

Optimism by the numbers

While the Commodores went to two bowl games in six-plus seasons under former coach Derek Mason, it was the last two years that made officials decide a change in leadership was necessary, going 3-9 in 2019 and 0-9 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Following a 41-0 loss at Missouri, Mason was fired and replaced by interim coach Todd Fitch for the final game against Tennessee. Two days later, Lea was hired.

The Commodores have shown incremental improvement since Lea’s hiring. In his first year, Vandy went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the SEC. Team 2 saw the Commodores snap a 27-game SEC losing streak with a 24-21 victory at No. 24 Kentucky followed by a 31-24 home win over Florida. That left Vandy seeking a home win over rival Tennessee to become bowl-eligible and UT shut out the Commodores 56-0.

This season, Vandy was picked to finish last in the SEC East in the Media Days poll, but the Commodores also got eight first-place votes. To earn the team’s first bowl appearance since 2018 (with a minimum of six victories), Vandy will have to sweep nonconference foes Hawaii, Alabama A&M, Wake Forest and UNLV and beat a couple of SEC teams again.

While some coaches might be happy to double the number of wins in the early years of rebuilding, Lea is not one of them. He wasn’t satisfied with five victories a year ago and won’t settle for anything less than a postseason berth this season. That has been his mantra since returning to his alma mater and he repeated it again at SEC Media Days in Nashville last month.

“A year ago we were hard at work on the foundational identity of our program, while also searching for on-field progress. This led to inconsistent play and plenty of challenging moments,” Lea says. “The adversity we faced strengthened our resolve and helped to refine our process, giving way to an evolved team that was able to find flashes of success.

“Though we can celebrate progress, we will never be satisfied with 5-7. Vanderbilt football pursues success at the highest level, and we will not back down from our mission to build the best college football program in the nation.”

Lea says Team 3’s quest to earn a postseason berth this fall began seven months ago once the 2022 season ended. He emphasizes that offseason training was conducted “with intention in an effort to form the most capable team to this point in my tenure. As we stand now in front of a clean sheet, our goal is postseason play,” he affirms.

“The margins remain razor thin for our program, and the difference between achieving our goal and being left in the wake of disappointment likely comes down to a handful of snaps this season. We understand that progress is seldom linear and certainly never a guarantee, and it’s our shared responsibility now to capture these margins in our design and preparation.”

Offense buys into coach’s message

“Total team effort” is often labeled as coach-speak, a sometimes rah-rah, double-talk or rallying cry to fire up fans and inspire players to buy into a new coaching staff, a new system, a new way of doing things.

But with Lea, it feels different. It’s a message from the heart. It’s what he expects from himself and those around him.

“To accomplish this, each program member must be willing to go beyond our limits, ever-evolving the internal expectations for what it means to invest in our process and strengthen our culture,” Lea says. “We simply cannot miss any opportunity to take ground on our mission.

“Two and a-half years ago, when I came home to Nashville, I wanted to prove to the world what I knew to be true about the potential of Vanderbilt football. As we’ve struggled through the challenges inherent in changing a culture and resuscitating a program, I realize I’m now motivated less by what I proved to those on the outside and more by what I share with those on the inside.

“The chip on my shoulder is still there and it’s still important, but what’s more important to me is the honor of collaborating with the first-class people that make up Vanderbilt football,” he states.

“I love going to work every day with our players and staff, with our fans and our loyal alums,” he adds, to build a “program we can all be proud of.”

Sheppard says the focused mentality Lea brings to the practice facility every day has inspired the athletes.

VU opened last year with a 63-10 win at Hawaii and closed with a 56-0 loss to Tennessee.

-- Photo By Michelle Morrow |The Ledger

“I think the words I would use to describe all that would be confidence. There’s this confidence, certain confidence in the locker room and throughout the whole facility and program that we’re ready to get to this season, putting in the work and ready to showcase it,” says Sheppard, Vandy’s top returning receiver with 60 catches for 776 yards and nine touchdowns.

The offense will have to improve on last season’s averages of 24.6 points and 347.3 yards per game in order to have a winning season, and Sheppard expects much from both the receivers and sophomore quarterback AJ Swann this fall.

“I feel like (Vandy receivers) are one of the more underrated groups in the country. We have guys you might not know about yet but coming on this season, I feel like we all put the work in to showcase that,” Sheppard adds.

“I’ve seen a lot of improvement (from Swann) on the football field, of course, and getting stronger and doing what he’s got to do there. From a leadership aspect, he’s really improved there. He’s more vocal. … We are on the field doing stuff, working chemistry with him. Definitely confident in him and excited to have a second year with him to build that chemistry and showcase that.”

The strong-armed Swann, who completed 115 of 198 attempts with two interceptions for 1,274 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago, expects the offseason bonding to pay dividends this fall for the Commodores.

“I feel pretty confident going into the season,” says Swann, a 6-3, 228-pounder from White, Georgia. “We’re all pretty confident that we can go out there right now and score pretty willingly.”

Defense also responds to challenge

A year ago, Vandy had the SEC’s worst defense, allowing averages of 461.3 yards and 36 points per game. That’s another category where the Commodores expect improvement this fall, say Barr and Jaylen Mahoney, a 5-11, 200-pound graduate defensive back from Rock Hill, South Carolina.

“We feel really good about this season, especially coming back with a majority of our returning defense. So that’s really good, and (to) continue the continuity with the coaches, as well,” Mahoney says, noting that Vanderbilt gave Lea a three-year contract extension last month through 2029.

Barr adds that Vandy’s momentum “is on the uptrend, for sure. We are all excited that Coach Lea is going to be here, hopefully for a long time. He’s always said to us, like he plans to be here for the rest of his career. He loves it here. Nashville is his home. He went to Vanderbilt, obviously.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of good momentum, good energy and a lot of belief within our program for what can happen here at Vanderbilt.”

Mahoney says his overriding goal in returning to Vandy this fall was to not only go out a winner personally but also to help set the tone for years to come.

“Our mission this season is postseason play. That’s for us to determine that. But I wanted to go win with Vanderbilt and accomplish things and change the narrative here,” he says.

“But we understand that that’s not going to be easy. Nothing is going to be given to us, and we are going to go out there and have to work hard in order to earn that.”

Building the right way

And that’s why the off-field construction project is as important to Lea as the one taking place on the field. He says they go hand in hand, and that’s why, when he looks out his office window at the construction site, he doesn’t see just the trucks and workers and the gaps where end zone seating used to stand.

Lea sees the bigger picture. The future of Vanderbilt football.

“What we’re seeing now is that vision manifests in physical transformation,” says Lea, crediting both university Chancellor Dr. Daniel Diermeier and AD Lee for their support and leadership in the project. “As I look out my window daily, I now witness the physical transformation of our spaces, a reality that very few believed would ever be possible. Our buildings are changing, but our foundation never will.

“Look, right now it’s not pretty. There’s a lot of shutdown roads and a lot of dirt and a lot of construction equipment, but it gives us a chance,” Lea says. “It gives us the landscape to paint the picture of what the future will be, and in short order we’ll be talking about Vanderbilt football with cutting-edge facilities and best-in-class resources. When has that ever been said?

“These are all exciting things for us. You’ve got a top 15 school. We play in the SEC. We’re in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt is one of one,” Lea adds. “You make no compromises. We’re going to support you with the best facilities and the best resources. You’re going to have coaches that are going to invest in you every day. We’re not out there to swap pieces in and out every year. We’re going to build and develop from the bottom up.

To me, that becomes a pretty enticing proposition.”

AD Lee, who played on the women’s basketball team, says the school’s athletic campus upgrades are overdue.

“I appreciate Commodore Nation’s patience this fall as we re-imagine FirstBank Stadium and the future of Vanderbilt Athletics, together,” Lee says. “We are forging ahead with the progress that we all deserve, in spite of the temporary inconveniences that accompany such a huge undertaking.

“By sacrificing together this fall, we can ensure Coach Lea’s team enjoys the home-field advantage it deserves.”

Maybe the next construction noises coming from FirstBank Stadium this fall will be the appreciative cheers and claps from a win-starved fan base saluting players and coaches for a job well done.