Vanderbilt Seeks First 10-Win Season While On The Playoff Bubble

When Clark Lea was a fullback for Bobby Johnson’s Commodores from 2002 to 2004, it was toward the end of a stretch of 35 consecutive losing seasons for Vandy. From 1983 to 2007 and spanning the coaching tenures of George MacIntyre, Watson Brown, Gerry DiNardo, Rod Dowhower, Woody Widenhofer and Johnson, a half dozen five-win seasons was as good as it got.

Vandy won only twice in each of Lea’s three seasons, during which he played in 30 games and had 14 touches. Twenty-one years after his final game as a player, the fifth-year coach has an opportunity to lead his alma mater to its first double-digit win season. The school first fielded a team in 1890.

The Commodores improved to 9-2 with a win against visiting Kentucky last week and close the regular season Saturday in Knoxville with their annual matchup against Tennessee, which leads the all-time series 81-33-5 and has won the last six. Lea is 0-7 against the Vols as a player and coach.

At No. 14 in the College Football Playoff ranking, Vanderbilt needs major help in getting an at-large bid to the 12-team field. Nothing will matter unless it defeats No. 19 Tennessee, which would be a fourth win against a team that was ranked on the week of the game. (South Carolina, LSU and Mizzou have since dropped out). At the very least, Lea’s team will play in a bowl for a second straight year. The only other time that happened was when James Franklin led the program to postseason appearances in each of his three seasons (2011-13) at the helm.

The ’Dores had a shot at 10 wins last season. After winning at Auburn on November 2, Lea’s team stood at 6-3 and needing to win their final four games, including a bowl. Vandy lost the three remaining regular season games against South Carolina (28-7), LSU (24-17) and the Vols (36-23) before defeating Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl to salvage the first winning season (7-6) since Franklin’s 2013 squad.

Including this season, five nine-win campaigns serve as the high-water mark at Vandy. The 1904 team that was under the direction of first-year coach Dan McGugin, one of college football’s great innovators during a three-decade run at the university, went 9-0. The 1915 team outscored the opposition 524-3 in its nine wins, though it was a 35-10 loss at Virginia that prevented a 10-0 mark. It would be 97 years before Vandy posted another nine-win season. The 2012 campaign was the first of two straight such years under Franklin, both capped by bowl victories, 9-4 finishes and top 25 rankings.

Like Vandy, Indiana began playing football in the 1890s, and broke through the double-digit barrier last year.

Each of the teams noted below have won 10 games before, though it has either been at least a few decades or at a lower level of play.

Virginia

There is much on the line at Scott Stadium on Saturday for the ‘Hoos against the Hokies. At 9-2 following a win at Duke ahead of last week’s bye, Tony Elliott’s Cavaliers could reach the 10-win mark for the second time in school history. That serves as mere background, however, given what is on the line. A victory over Virginia Tech would mean a trip to the ACC championship game. Win that and it is off to the playoff.

Virginia’s only 1o-win season (10-3) was authored by the 1989 ACC co-champs, who kicked off the schedule with a loss to Notre Dame and ended it with an Orange Bowl defeat at the hands of Illinois. In between, George Welsh’s team won 10 of 11. The lone conference loss was at Clemson to extend UVA’s string of misery against the Tigers to 29 years, a streak that was snapped in 1990.

UConn

The Huskies have been playing football since 1896 and have only one double-digit win season. That was 1998 under Skip Holtz, the program’s final year as an FCS member. Randy Edsall took over for the inaugural FBS campaign of 1999 and the Huskies have since recorded four nine-win seasons, including the last two years under Jim Mora, Jr. At 9-3 and its regular season complete, independent UConn could reach the double-digit mark in a bowl. Mora, though, will not be on the sideline as he takes over at Colorado State.

North Texas

Eric Morris’ Mean Green (10-1) defeated Rice last week to capture its first 10-win season as an FBS member, and has a shot at 12 wins before the coach departs for Oklahoma State. Coach Odus McDowell led the team then known as the Eagles to a 10-2 mark in 1947, a decade before moving up in the ranks.

Thanks to Mississippi State having to vacate victories due to NCAA sanctions, Hayden Fry’s 1977 squad is listed at 10-1 in the school’s record book, though it went 9-2 on the field. A few nine-win seasons followed for a program that dropped down to the FCS for a 12-season stretch beginning in 1982.