September 24, 2005

Vandy goes to 4-0 with Richmond win

The Vanderbilt Commodores are now within two wins of becoming bowl-eligible after a 37-13 victory over the Richmond Spiders of the Atlantic 10 (I-AA) today in Nashville. It is the first time the Commodores have started a season 4-0 since 1984. Reports indicate that if Vandy wins two more it would be the first time they were bowl eligible since 1982. I'm not sure what that really means since I don't remember when the 6-win rule was put into place.

Vandy QB Jay Cutler was 28 of 40 with no picks. The Commodores racked up 513 yards of total offense in the game. A crowd of about 38,000 attended the game - which is the largest home crowd for Vanderbilt in four years.

Looking at the Commodores' remaining schedule, they host MTSU next week and then have home games with LSU and Georgia. They then go on the road to South Carolina and Florida before coming back home to face Kentucky. They close out the season in Knoxville against Tennessee on November 19. Assuming the MTSU game is a probable win, they'd only need to pick up one other win to become bowl eligible. My guess would be that South Carolina and Kentucky would be the best possibilities for a win of those games.