Everything is fine and Vandy

Commodores have last laugh on Tigers

NASHVILLE - The Vanderbilt Commodores are on a mission and tired of being considered a football joke.

Well, they're big-time now.

Mackenzi Adams came off the bench and threw for 153 yards and two touchdowns, and No. 19 Vanderbilt beat 13th-ranked Auburn, 14-13, last night to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 1943.

"People can think what they want to think," Vandy linebacker Chris Marve said. "We just want to show the country we're a different Vanderbilt."

The Commodores improved to 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference for only the third time - and first since 1950. The win keeps them atop the SEC East while also snapping a 13-game skid to Auburn (4-2, 2-2). It was Vandy's first win in the series since the 1955 Gator Bowl, and the fewest points Auburn has scored in this series since that game.

"This is what coaches live for," Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said. "I live to walk into the locker room and see how happy our players are."

Trying to preserve a 1-point lead, Vandy had to punt with 2:16 left, but Brett Upson kicked it 55 yards and Alan Strong downed it at the Tigers' 3. On the next play, Myron Lewis intercepted Chris Todd.

All that was left was for Adams to take a knee a couple of times, and the party was on for one of the biggest wins in the history of a program that's perennially been the doormat of the SEC. After leaving the field, the Commodores returned for a curtain call.

"A lot of these teams think they're way better than us," Vandy receiver George Smith said. "But we're proving that we can play with them."

The difference in the game was Auburn kicker Wes Byrum's missed extra point in the first quarter, but Vandy outgained the Tigers, 263-208, and a defense that had led the SEC in sacks coming in added five more by five different Commodores.

Vandy sacked Todd twice inside the final four minutes to force the Tigers to punt with 2:51 left.

Auburn still looks lost in its new spread offense. The Tigers managed just 4 yards rushing in the second half, and coach Tommy Tuberville took the blame.

"We couldn't run it," he said. "We tried both quarterbacks, and they played us a little in the second half, got in our face, gave us bad plays . . . We're not making any excuses. We lost this game. I did."