Division Eastern Division AP No. 24 | Coaches No. 23 2013 record 9–4 (4–4 SEC) | |
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Conference Southeastern Conference Head coach James Franklin (3rd year) | ||
The 2013 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represents Vanderbilt University during the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Commodores play their seven home games at Vanderbilt Stadium at Dudley Field in Nashville, Tennessee, which has been Vanderbilt football's home stadium since 1922. The 2013 team is coming off back-to-back bowls for the first time in school history. The 2012 season was the best win pct since 1955 (.692) the nine wins was the most since 1915, and the 5 SEC wins was the most since 1935. The 2012 season ended with the current longest win streak in the SEC, needless to say this was one of the best seasons in Vanderbilt football history. The 2013 team was headed by James Franklin who was in his 3rd and final year at Vanderbilt. It marked the Commodores 123rd overall season, 80th as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and its 22nd within the SEC Eastern Division. For the third straight year Vanderbilt has made it to a bowl game the game will be the first played after December 31 of the same year of the season. Vandy defeated Houston Cougars in the BBVA Compass Bowl 41–24. Vanderbilt finished with 9 wins back to back for the first time in school history, also for the first time was ranked in the top 25 of AP and Coaches polls in back-to-back years.
Before the season
A small amount of controversy accorded when Vanderbilt canceled games at home with Northwestern and away with Ohio State. A letter was sent cancelling the games, the explicit reason being the need to accommodate Mizzou into Vanderbilt's SEC East Division. Northwestern, like Vanderbilt in the SEC the sole private institution in the Big 10, alleged that the real reason was fear on the part of Vanderbilt to continue playing its Big 10 counterpart—a series which had been referred to as the Battle of the Nerds.
In a development unrelated to the schedule changes, on August 9, 2013, four former players were indicted for rape and had been arrested. Brandon Vandenburg, Cory Batey, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie were taken into custody and given a state mandated HIV test. All four men were charged with five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. They allegedly had sex with an unconscious 21-year-old victim in the school's Gillette House dorm on June 23, 2013. The defendants were dismissed from the football team on June 29, 2013 and banned from campus during the six-week investigation that followed. A fifth player, Chris Boyd, pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to commit accessory after the fact and was dismissed from the team but not the university for his role in helping to cover up the rape.