Vanderbilt shocked the nation last season by winning its first four games of the year.
Although the Commodores only secured one more win in their final seven games, the start of the 2005 season showed that a football program at an academically-focused university could compete in a tough Division-I conference-something that Duke has been struggling to accomplish the last few years.
Vanderbilt (3-5, 1-4 in the SEC) successfully built up a competitive program under the guidance of head coach Bobby Johnson, who focused on bringing in athletes who wanted to win but also desired an education.
"What you've got to do is get guys who are interested in education and winning football games," Johnson said. "If you get guys who want to win but not receive an education, then that isn't going to work. Or if you get guys who only care about being doctors, lawyers and engineers but not about winning, you'll have trouble too."
When Johnson took over the program before the 2002 season, Vanderbilt perennially was among the worst in the SEC. Before his arrival, the Commodores had not won more than three conference games in a single season since 1991.
Although Johnson began to bring in better recruits to Vanderbilt, the early-going was rough during the coach's first few years. In the Commodores' first three seasons under Johnson, Vanderbilt only captured two SEC victories and finished with just two wins each season.
But Vanderbilt stuck with Johnson, who nearly coached the Commodores to an upset win over then-No. 16 Tennessee in the final game of his third season. Before losing 38-33, Vanderbilt charged late in the fourth quarter of that game in 2004 behind the arm of quarterback Jay Cutler, who would emerge out of nowhere as a Heisman Trophy candidate the following season.
After three years of having a solidified and consistent coaching staff along with three successful recruiting classes, Johnson finally found success at Vanderbilt in his fourth year.
"These were coaches that I've known previously in the profession that I knew had experience in this type of situation," Johnson said about his assistant coaches' experience of working at academically focused institutions. "These guys stuck around, which made the players feel comfortable. It helps you to have that continuity in which you don't have changes to things every year with a new coordinator."
The 4-0 start to the 2005 season included two conference wins over Arkansas and Mississippi-which matched the total number of SEC victories that Johnson had secured in his first three seasons.
Even though Vanderbilt failed to win any of its next six games, the Commodores lost all those contests by a touchdown or less, except for their 34-6 loss to Louisiana State. And Vanderbilt finally broke its losing streak by upsetting Tennessee in the 2005 season's final game, which the Commodores had come so close to doing the year before.
This season, Johnson has a chance to put up a similar mark to last year's 5-6 overall and 3-5 conference record. So far, the Commodores' have lost in close games to Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi, but they shocked then-No.16 Georgia-in Athens, Ga.-in a 24-22 win Oct. 14.
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