Vanderbilt aims for once-in-a-generation-win

• Commodores have not beaten Tennessee at home since 1982
• Vanderbilt has not beaten UT anywhere since Jay Cutler-led team won in Knoxville in 2005
• This year's VU team trying to get to eight wins for first time since that '82 team

Around mid-November, Whit Taylor knows he will start to get phone calls about Vanderbilt's 1982 football win against Tennessee.

"I figured it was that time of year," said Taylor, the quarterback for that Commodores team. "That's the only time."

This year feels somewhat different for Taylor and the rest of his 1982 Vanderbilt football teammates who defeated the Vols 28-21. There's a sense that the Commodores (6-4, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) could rack up their first home win against Tennessee (4-6, 0-6) since that season on Saturday night (7 ET, ESPN2).

This year's team also has a chance to get eight wins for the first time since that squad went 8-4. The only other team in the last 30 years with that chance heading into the Tennessee game was the 2008 team that also was 6-4 before it played the Vols but finished 7-6.

"Thirty years, that's a long time, and it was, needless to say, a special team," Taylor said.

That game was an important occasion for Vanderbilt for several reasons. It was the Commodores' first win against Tennessee since 1975. It capped a 6-0 season at home, and it was the seniors' final home game.

"I grew up in Tennessee, so it was always huge for me and it was huge for Whit," former running back Norman Jordan said. "I think the teams are still very similar in that with the Tennessee players, it's very, very big. I don't think it is just another game."

Lineman Pat Saindon said when they arrived at the field, they saw the numbers on the field painted in orange, rather than the customary white with gold outline. This put the players in a bit of an angry frame of mind before the game.

"That was our home," Saindon said. "We had the confidence. We knew we could line up against anybody and at least play them tight."

After Vanderbilt's win, there was a thought that with the success of the 1982 team, the Commodores-Vols game could be more than just an automatic win on the Tennessee schedule. But it took 23 years for Vanderbilt to defeat the Vols again. That happened in 2005 on a last-minute drive led by quarterback Jay Cutler at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

Vanderbilt couldn't sustain the momentum against Tennessee in the following years — especially at home. The closest score since 2005 for Vanderbilt at home against Tennessee came in 2008, when the Vols won 20-10.

Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer had already agreed to step down following the season weeks earlier, and the Vols were not going to be bowl-eligible. The Commodores were bowl-eligible and were expected to beat Tennessee.

As Vanderbilt has improved under coach James Franklin, and the Vols have slipped in recent years, the significance and the meaning of the game has changed for both teams. By winning its last two regular-season games and getting a bowl victory, Vanderbilt would get to nine wins for the first time since 1915 and equal the school record.

"It has almost been that Tennessee has picked their (game) up a little bit more," Taylor said. "It's definitely a big game, and people can downplay it all they want, but it is a huge game to the guys in that locker room."

Because home victories against Tennessee have been rare, this has increased the importance of the '82 team and its victory. But those team members said they'd gladly pass the mantle onward as the last home team to defeat the Vols to this squad if they can do it Saturday.

"You wish down the road, you kind of want somebody else to carry that staff, if you will," Arnold said. "I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's not good when you have to go back that far and talk to guys about it. You want the new history to become better."

Josh Cooper also writes for The (Nashville) Tennessean