For many SEC teams, fall camp is just a few days. Vanderbilt, which plays in Week 0 of the 2022 season, opened fall camp on Friday.

Team 2 of the Clark Lea era is off to a better start than last year’s squad, the head coach told reporters.

“Last year’s first practice, it was alarming. We are way more comfortable with what the expectations are and the manner of which we practice and the mindset toward attacking things and doing hard things together. I feel great about that,” Lea said after practice. “This was still Practice 1. Mistakes are mistakes – I’d expect that. We have a lot of young players that are getting folded in, but we have to be patient with their development.

“The manner in which we move from drill to drill will improve, but on the whole, I thought the effort, the attention to detail, the intentionality was there today. I would expect that. That’s the work we did this summer. That’s the work we did in spring. We’re further along.”

Lea hopes that a better start to camp translates into more effective preparation for the season-opener. Last year, the Commodores lost 23-3 to ETSU. The 2022 campaign opens with a trip to Hawaii. Lea said the travel roster is far from set.

“There are very few guys right now that we’ve locked in to spots,” Lea told reporters. “We want this team to take shape over the next few weeks.”