I attended a college without a football team and have always considered myself a University of Tennessee fan, although not a rabid, I-bleed-Orange type of fan.

So it may be heresy to admit that I was actually kind of rooting for the underdog today. Vanderbilt got off to a great start this year but then struggled and squandered their high hopes; even so, they played some close games against some tough opponents. And Tennessee has been awful this year.

The Commodores play Tennessee every year and hadn’t beaten them since the early 1980s. But they managed to do so today — in Knoxville, no less, with a thrilling drive down the field in the waning minutes. I was listening on an AM radio in the T-G newsroom as we put together Sunday’s front page.

Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, their modest success this year was heavily dependent on quarterback Jay Cutler, who stuck around for the season even though he could have gone to the NFL. They won’t have him next year, though, and that could mean a return to their past woes.