1982 record 8–4 (4–2 SEC) | Home stadium Vanderbilt Stadium | |
Conference Southeastern Conference Head coach George MacIntyre (4th year) Offensive coordinator Watson Brown (2nd year) | ||
The 1982 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented Vanderbilt University in the 1982 college football season. The team was led by head coach George MacIntyre, led Vanderbilt to a bowl game for the first time since 1974. The Vanderbilt squad finished the season with a record of 8–4. 1982 was Vanderbilt’s first winning season since 1975 and would prove to be the last for 25 more years.
Season
Vanderbilt was coming off of another losing season for the sixth straight year, compiling an overall record of 13–53 and only one SEC win and thirty-five losses. From 1976 to 1981 Vanderbilt lost 33 consecutive SEC games before defeating Ole Miss in 1981.
1982 Vanderbilt was a veteran team with 19 seniors and 26 juniors, led by Whit Taylor at QB and All-American’s TE Allama Matthews (1982), punter Jim Arnold (1982), Corner Back Leonard Coleman (1983), flanker/TE Chuck Scott (1983), and kicker Ricky Anderson (1984).
This good season Vanderbilt had would prove to be an odd year. The next 25 years Vanderbilt would not have a winning record. A few years they came within a game of being five hundred but never equaling the feat. From 1983 to 2007 Vanderbilt had a horrible record of 78 wins 200 losses and 1 tie.