Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 106. Vanderbilt
Congratulations, Kansas
Finally, the first power 5 team.
If you’re a Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Rutgers fan; hold your loved ones close tonight. It could’ve been you. It wasn’t you. And for that, be thankful. Vanderbilt fans, you aren’t as lucky. I’m not going to beat up on you too much, but you’re the worst P5 team of the last 40 years, and the 9th worst team overall from those who played Division 1-A from 1983-2022. These are the facts, and they are indisputable.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 28 | Vanderbilt | 2012 | 13.749 | 9-4 |
| 37 | Vanderbilt | 2013 | 9.635 | 9-4 |
| 46 | Vanderbilt | 2008 | 2.29 | 7-6 |
| 60 | Vanderbilt | 2016 | -5.951 | 6-7 |
| 56 | Vanderbilt | 1984 | -7.282 | 5-6 |
| 67 | Vanderbilt | 2018 | -7.966 | 6-7 |
| 63 | Vanderbilt | 2011 | -8.387 | 6-7 |
| 60 | Vanderbilt | 1999 | -10.71 | 5-6 |
| 53 | Vanderbilt | 1991 | -10.757 | 5-6 |
| 73 | Vanderbilt | 2005 | -14.971 | 5-6 |
| 73 | Vanderbilt | 2007 | -15.122 | 5-7 |
| 65 | Vanderbilt | 1992 | -16.353 | 4-7 |
| 66 | Vanderbilt | 1994 | -17.783 | 5-6 |
| 65 | Vanderbilt | 1987 | -19.543 | 4-7 |
| 89 | Vanderbilt | 2017 | -20.23 | 5-7 |
| 88 | Vanderbilt | 2022 | -20.638 | 5-7 |
| 75 | Vanderbilt | 2006 | -21.683 | 4-8 |
| 86 | Vanderbilt | 2015 | -22.093 | 4-8 |
| 76 | Vanderbilt | 1993 | -24.36 | 4-7 |
| 78 | Vanderbilt | 1985 | -27.792 | 3-7-1 |
| 81 | Vanderbilt | 1988 | -28.272 | 3-8 |
| 83 | Vanderbilt | 1997 | -31.977 | 3-8 |
| 88 | Vanderbilt | 2000 | -32.365 | 3-8 |
| 89 | Vanderbilt | 1983 | -36.045 | 2-9 |
| 93 | Vanderbilt | 1996 | -36.213 | 2-9 |
| 90 | Vanderbilt | 1995 | -38.215 | 2-9 |
| 101 | Vanderbilt | 2004 | -39.055 | 2-9 |
| 111 | Vanderbilt | 2014 | -40.424 | 3-9 |
| 118 | Vanderbilt | 2019 | -40.936 | 3-9 |
| 107 | Vanderbilt | 2009 | -43.508 | 2-10 |
| 100 | Vanderbilt | 1998 | -43.699 | 2-9 |
| 101 | Vanderbilt | 2003 | -43.834 | 2-10 |
| 99 | Vanderbilt | 2001 | -44.034 | 2-9 |
| 102 | Vanderbilt | 2002 | -45.145 | 2-10 |
| 101 | Vanderbilt | 1986 | -47.816 | 1-10 |
| 110 | Vanderbilt | 2010 | -49.1 | 2-10 |
| 95 | Vanderbilt | 1989 | -50.915 | 1-10 |
| 122 | Vanderbilt | 2021 | -52.341 | 2-10 |
| 100 | Vanderbilt | 1990 | -55.786 | 1-10 |
| 128 | Vanderbilt | 2020 | -58.482 | 0-9 |
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 1935 (106th)146-315-1 record
0 conference titles
3-3 bowl record
2 consensus All-Americans
48 NFL players drafted
If Vandy is 146-315-1 overall, I don’t want to know what their SEC record is. I do know they’re 145-435-17 since joining the conference in 1932. Despite their struggles, they do have by far the most players drafted of any team we’ve seen so far with 48, one of the benefits of being a P5 program. 3 bowl wins in 40 years is a tough scene for a P5 program, but there are a few P5 teams above Vandy with less. The 2 All-Americans were P Ricky Anderson in 1984, and LB Zach Cunningham in 2016.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2020 (0-9 overall, 0-9 SEC)
Ah yes, the 2020 Vanderbilt Commodores. Where to even begin? Youtuber BurgerSmooth described their record as 0-9-2-1-1-1. That’s 0 wins, 9 losses, 2 postponements, 1 cancellation, 1 publicity stunt, and 1 head coach firing. Vandy was ranked as my 3rd worst team of 2020, what made them so bad? A 12-17 season opening loss to Texas A&M, who finished the year ranked #4, wasn’t bad at all. Then the blowouts came. 7-41 to LSU, 7-41 to South Carolina, 21-54 to Ole Miss. LSU’s defense had just given up 623 passing yards to Mississippi State, but Vandy could only muster 113. Ole Miss QB Matt Corral had 6 passing TD and 0 INT in their game. Had they played a regular 12 game schedule with 8 SEC games, Vanderbilt likely would’ve been at least 2-10 or 3-9, as they had one-possession losses to Texas A&M, Mississippi State, and Kentucky. 0-41 and 17-42 losses to 5-5 Missouri and 3-7 Tennessee was a rough end to the season though.
The lone bright spot, or final nail in the season’s coffin, depending on how you view it, was kicker Sarah Fuller becoming the first woman to play in a Power 5 game. She handled kickoffs against Missouri and made 2 XPs against Tennessee. While many thought her addition to the roster was a publicity stunt, Vanderbilt’s on-field results in 2020 suggest that maybe she really was just the best they had to offer. Some players had respectable years: DE Dayo Odeyingbo was 2nd Team All-SEC with 5.5 sacks and 2.5 TFL, and was a 2nd round pick by the Indianapolis Colts after the season. This team’s legacy is being really really bad, and Sarah Fuller breaking the Power 5 gender barrier.
5. 1984 (5-6 overall, 2-4 SEC)
Yes, we’re going all the way back to 1984 to get one of Vanderbilt’s top 5 seasons. And it’s not even a winning record. Vandy only had 3 winning seasons in 40 years, so bear with me.
But this team had a very good start. Led by coach George MacIntyre, father of recent Colorado head coach Mike, Vandy opened with a W 26-14 over Kansas State, W 23-14 over Maryland (who finished #12), W 41-6 over Kansas, and to top it off, a 30-21 W over Alabama in Tuscaloosa. This is still the only time Vanderbilt’s ever beaten Alabama on their home turf. Unfortunately, like many seasons to come, an inexplicable loss derailed the season. #19 Vanderbilt hosted 0-4 Tulane, and thanks to QB Kurt Page throwing 4 of his 9 INTs on the year, lost 23-27 in a heartbreaking upset. The season ended with a thud as Vandy lost 6 of their last 7 to finish 5-6 and miss a bowl. 4 players, including Page, made the All-SEC team on offense, and 2 players made it on defense. P Ricky Anderson was the team MVP, earning consensus All-American honors with a staggering 48.2 yards per punt. 7 players were drafted to the NFL over the next 2 years, so this was a pretty good team who just never recovered after the Tulane loss.
4. 2016 (6-7 overall, 3-5 SEC)
There was actually some optimism in 2016. HC Derek Mason was entering his 3rd year after going 3-9 and 4-8 the previous two, and Vanderbilt was picked 5th out of 7 teams in the SEC East, with 2 1st-place votes. It turned out to be a better year than expected, making just their 5th bowl since 1982. And this was a damn solid team. Going 6-6 in the regular season, 5 of their losses came by just 9 points or less. An underrated non-conference slate included a 47-24 win over 8-5 Middle Tennessee and a 31-30 OT win over C-USA champ Western Kentucky. The Commodores spoiled Georgia’s homecoming with a 17-16 win in Athens, their first win there since 2006. Sitting at 4-6 and needing to win out to make a bowl, Vandy knocked off Shea Patterson’s Ole Miss, and #24 Tennessee 45-34, just their 6th win over Tennessee in 42 years! LB Zach Cunningham was a force, leading a defense that gave up just 24.0 PPG. He led the team in tackles (125), TFL (16.5), fumble recoveries (4), and forced fumbles (2). RB Ralph Webb was 2nd Team All-SEC with 1283 rush yards and 13 TD. QB Kyle Shurmur threw more INT than TD on the year, but would develop into one of Vanderbilt’s best all-time QBs the following 2 years, combining for 50 TD to just 16 INT from 2017-18.
3. 2008 (7-6 overall, 4-4 SEC)
Bit of a magical year for Vanderbilt fans. After a 4-0 start which included wins over #24 South Carolina, Rice (who finished 10-3), and Ole Miss (who finished #14), Vanderbilt entered the AP Rankings at #19 and was chosen to host College Gameday against #13 Auburn. The Commies were looking for their first 5-0 start since 1943, and to end a 13 game losing streak to Auburn. Thanks to a standout team defensive performance, Vandy held Auburn to just 208 yards and 13 points in a 14-13 win. After being picked as the worst SEC team coming into the year, Vanderbilt was suddenly #13 and had a legitimate possible top 10 matchup brewing with Georgia in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, they lost a trap game in Starkville to Mississippi State 14-17, and wouldn’t recover. Vanderbilt’s defense carried them throughout the year, but the offense never got going, and 4 game losing streak ended with a 14-24 loss to #10 Georgia, 7-10 loss to Duke, and finally 14-42 to #4 Florida and Tim Tebow. At 5-4, the season wasn’t over yet, and an impressive performance from QB Chris Nickson (3 passing TD, 118 rushing yards) helped Vanderbilt beat Kentucky (who’s QB was Randall Cobb) 31-24 and clinch a bowl game. In a game of vaunted defenses between 9-4 Boston College and 6-6 Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt did just enough with a defensive TD and 3 FGs to win 16-14 and clinch their first winning record in a season since 1982.
CB DJ Moore was a 2nd Team All-American. DE Tim Fugger had 14 tackles on the year.
2. 2013 (9-4 overall, 4-4 SEC)
James Franklin good. If you had any questions about his coaching ability, compare these top 2 seasons with the rest of Vanderbilt’s recent history. This was the 2nd year of Vandy’s great 2-year stretch, and they actually finished in the AP Top 25 (#24). A weird year for the SEC East saw Missouri and South Carolina finish top 5 in the nation, Florida and Tennessee have losing records, and Georgia finish just 8-5. Vanderbilt took advantage of that and a non-conference schedule of Austin Peay, UAB, UMass, and Wake Forest to finish 4-0 out of conference and 8-4 overall in the regular season. Notable SEC wins included 31-27 over #15 Georgia, 34-17 over Florida in Gainesville, and 14-10 over Tennessee in Knoxville. The season was capped with a 41-24 bowl win over 8-4 Houston. WR Jordan Matthews was BY FAR the MVP with 112 catches for 1477 receiving yards and 7 TD. He earned 1st Team All-American honors by the AP and set the SEC record for career receiving yards with 3759.
1. 2012 (9-4 overall, 5-3 SEC)
And this was the best nerd team of them all. It was a year of record setting: the first time winning 5 SEC games in a year since 1935, the first win at home against Tennessee in 30 years, the first time since 1948 they finished in the Top 25 (#23), the first 9-win season since 1915, and they ended the year with the longest win streak in the SEC (5 games). It started like any other Vanderbilt year: 2-4, with losses to Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. After that, everything changed. A win over Auburn (who was 2 years removed from a national title, but in the middle of a miserable 3-9 year) kickstarted a 7 game win streak with results such as 40-0 over Kentucky, 41-18 over Tennessee, 55-21 over Wake Forest, and 38-24 over NC State in the bowl. QB Mike Glennon was the talk of the game for NC State, many thinking he was a future 1st round pick, but Vandy’s defense held him to just 1 TD 3 INT on 5.1 YPA. There weren’t a lot of holes on this team. QB Jordan Rodgers (brother of Aaron) put up a respectable statline of 2539 passing yards 15 TD 5 INT, RB Zac Stacy was 2nd Team All-SEC with 1346 yards and 10 TD from scrimmage, and WR Jordan Matthews was 1st Team All-SEC with 94 catches for 1323 yards and 8 TD. Defensively no players made the All-SEC 1st/2nd Team, but as a team they ranked 15th in the nation with 18.7 PPG allowed.
5th Quarter
Thoughts on Vanderbilt being the worst Power 5 team of the last 40 years? Who’s next, and how soon?
Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years - Main Hub
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