Vanderbilt Football Projected for Local Bowl Game for First Time Since 2018
The Vanderbilt Football team is only one win away from going bowling.
With four games remaining, the Commodores just need one victory to reach the six-game threshold to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2018.
Vanderbilt last participated in bowl season in 2018, when Derek Mason was still the program's head coach. The Dores went 6-6 that year before losing in the Texas Bowl 45-38 against the Baylor Bears.
According to 247 Sports, not only do they believe that the Commodores will go dancing this season, but they will be awarded a popular bowl game. They are projected to face the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Liberty Bowl. The game would be on December 27th, played at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis.
Not only would the team go dancing for the first time in three years, they would only be a few hours from Nashville in doing so.
Cincinnati would be making their first bowl appearance since 2022. It would be the first time the team would go dancing under new head coach Scott Satterfield, who was hired at the beginning of the 2023 season.
“No team outside of the playoff in college football is going to enjoy its trip to bowl season like the Commodores, a reward for an impressive campaign under Clark Lea,” writes Brad Crawford of 247.
The team will look to make the program's first bowl game in six seasons and grab its first bowl win since James Franklins led the Commodores to a victory in the BBVA Compass Bowl against the Houston Cougars in 2013.
Many things are in common with that 2013 season this year for Vanderbilt as that was also the last year the team was ranked in the AP Top 25. The team snapped that drought a few weeks ago after their upset win against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
A win would make the season the best under head coach Clark Lea, who is finishing up his fourth season at the helm for the Commodores. After a rough 2-10 season in 2023, the higher expectations of his squad have engulfed his team’s new mindset.
In order to become bowl-eligible, the team will need to win one of the final four games, all against tough SEC opponents. They will face off against the Auburn Tigers this Saturday on the road at Jordan-Hare Stadium. If they can’t get it done this upcoming weekend, they will take three more chances as they are set to face South Carolina and LSU and then finish the year against Tennessee.
