SEC Media Days rolled on at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Downtown Nashville on Tuesday.

The speakers again included commissioner Greg Sankey followed by third-year Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, two-time defending national champion Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, first-year Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze and Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Here are three takeaways from Day 2 of media days.

Vanderbilt made undeniable strides in Clark Lea's second season.

The Commodores snapped a years-long conference losing skid with an upset win over Kentucky late last season. They followed it up by beating Florida at home the next week and entered the last game of the season with a bowl berth on the line.

Vanderbilt finished short of that, but that remains the goal heading into Lea's third season at his alma mater.

"A year ago we were hard at work on the foundational identity of our program, while also searching for on-field progress," Lea said. "This led to inconsistent play and plenty of challenging moments.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."

Building Vanderbilt into the best program in college football is a lofty goal and possibly an unrealistic one, especially given the Commodores' annual schedule, which in a year will include conference newcomer Texas.

MORE: SEC Media Days: Three takeaways from Day 1

Building a team that can reach the postseason is the immediate goal and it is obtainable. The first month of Vanderbilt's 2023 season works out favorably with four-straight non conference games before opening SEC play vs. Kentucky.

"As we stand now in front of a clean sheet, our goal is postseason play," Lea said. "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."

Lea touted the school largely touted for its academics for its commitment to football, which currently includes facility upgrades at FirstBank Stadium.

"Obviously when I accepted the job all these plans were in place, and so you can, from that moment, start talking about what this future is going to look like," Lea said. "I think the biggest statement that it makes is just support from the highest office on campus. I mean, Chancellor Diermeier has been such an advocate for our program...

"I think when recruits and prospects see that level of interest at the highest office, it's something that is different for Vanderbilt, right? This is a moment for us."

Tennessee hosts Vanderbilt at Neyland Stadium on Nov. 25.

As far as college football's upper echelon is concerned, Georgia is there to stay.

The Bulldogs have won back-to-back national championships and elite recruiting gives them the talent for a third-straight in 2023.

There are few road blocks in Georgia's path to another title. For now, its biggest test appears to be its Nov. 19 clash with Tennessee at Neyland Stadium but before then, the Bulldogs are battling complacency, at least according to Smart.

MORE: Ahead of SEC Media Days, VolReport predicts league's final standings

"Everybody here has talked about is the emphasis on three-peat, is the emphasis on what are you going to do next, how are you going to top that, how do you top an undefeated season," Smart said. "The threat for us is complacency. The first thing you have to do is acknowledge that it's a threat. Like if you acknowledge the complacency is a threat, it's the first step towards stomping it out. So we look for two things when we look for people to join our organization. I'm not talking about players, I'm talking about anybody in our organization. Do they love football and do they embrace being part of something bigger than themselves? Are they selfless?

"We want to find people who love football and embrace a selfless role. Those two qualities, loving football and embracing being selfless, are not dependent on outcomes. They're not dependent on win or loss, did I get a sack, did I touch the ball. That's not what we're looking for, guys that are dependent on outcomes. We want guys that think independent of outcomes."

Realistically, Georgia could be the first team since Minnesota between 1934-36 to win consecutive championships, but Smart insisted he's not too focused on the historical precedent of the achievement.

"We have not addressed that with them. We've certainly looked at some three-peat scenarios of teams like the (Chicago) Bulls and different sports teams that they might actually know about, " Smart said. "No offense to the Minnesota 1935 team, but I don't know if it's going to resonate with my audience.

"I care about complacency. If the focus is on that and the outcomes, I think the rest will take care of itself in terms of allowing our guys to focus on being the best they can be."

For the first time since 2017, Hugh Freeze was back at SEC Media Days, this time with the Auburn Tigers.

Freeze was hired away from Liberty where he rehabilitated his coaching career after a tumultuous ending to five-year stint at Ole Miss.

In Oxford, Freeze turned the Rebels into a competitor. He beat Alabama twice and reach a No. 1 ranking in 2014. There's reason to believe he can do the same at a place that has more resources like Auburn.

MORE: SEC Media Day Pulse: Where league teams stand heading into Nashville

"When the ending at Ole Miss occurred it was hard to truthfully process would you ever get that opportunity again, so I would have to say at that point no," Freeze said. "But as time passes and things tend to settle back in and you work through...Those are tough circumstances, but how a person responds to those and reacts to those probably tells you more about them than the successes do. I would be less than truthful with you if after we started having success at Liberty, particularly with it just going FBS and us being able to beat the likes of Arkansas and BYU and Virginia Tech and Syracuse and playing close with every Power Five that we played, did the thought start creeping in your mind that certain opportunities might present themselves again? Yes, at that point. But not prior to that point did it enter my mind."

Freeze will have his work cut out for him during this transition.

Auburn fired Bryan Harsin halfway through last season on its way to a 5-7 finish, and being competitive in an SEC West that features LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas—teams that are all expected to have strong seasons—makes it an even tougher task.

"I love our team. They're my team. They're Auburn's team," Freeze said. "We're going to coach the heck out of them. Does our roster from top to bottom look like Alabama's, Georgia's, LSU's, Florida, A&M, Ole Miss? I don't know yet. I know a couple they don't because I've watched the tape. Do I think we've improved Auburn with the additions that we've had since I've been there? Yes. Does that mean we close the gap at all? I have no clue.

"I do know we improved Auburn, and I hope that means that we somehow close the gap enough to... It's too early for me to really say, but I do know we improved our roster. But at the same time, they're constantly improving theirs it seems like."

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