At 4-0, Vanderbilt is now a football school

“I heard someone say we’re a football school,” he said. “That’s exciting to hear.”

It certainly appeared that way Saturday night as a near sellout crowd at Vanderbilt Stadium watched the Commodores move to 4-0 with a solid 37-13 victory over Division 1-AA Richmond.

“We had to earn this victory tonight,” Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said. “This is a game we are supposed to win and we went out and won it, but Richmond played well.”

The Commodores offensive machine kept humming along, gaining 513 total yards with quarterback Jay Cutler accounting for 277 of them. In the process, Cutler became the school’s all-time total offense leader (6,769), passing former quarterback Greg Zolman.

With his three touchdown passes, Cutler also became the school’s all-time leader in that category with 44, breaking a tie with Zolman and Whit Taylor.

“The records are fun, and I’m glad they are happening when we are winning,” he said. “I’ve been at this school a long time. They are meaningful to me, especially with us being 4-0 right now.”

Cutler has plenty of help on offense these days. In the win over Ole Miss, Jeff Jennings rushed for over 100 yards and Erik Davis had over 100 receiving yards. Against Richmond, it was Cassen Jackson-Garrison with 119 rushing yards and wide receiver Earl Bennett with 124 receiving yards.

“We’re clicking (on offense),” Cutler said. “Coach (Ted) Cain is doing a great job of getting game plans together and we’re going out and executing. We’re keeping teams off balance.”

But the bigger story on Saturday may have been the 38,446 that nearly filled Vanderbilt Stadium. The Commodores have struggled for years to put fans in the seats for non-conference games, and their Southeastern Conference games usually have a very strong visitor presence.

“It was fantastic to see a crowd like that,” Johnson said. “I’m very pleased. They were into the game and they were loud. It helped us.”

The Commodores stand two victories away from ending a streak of 22 consecutive losing seasons. Winless Middle Tennessee State visits Vanderbilt Stadium next week, giving the Commodores another good chance to get one step closer to bowl eligibility.

“You can look at this game to keep us down on the ground,” Johnson said of his team’s ability to not look ahead. “We jumped offside on the goal line, we dropped some balls, we allowed them to break contain, we missed tackles, had too many penalties. There are a lot of things we can do to get better.”