2001 SEC football standings
	Conf				Overall
Team		W		L		W		L
Eastern Division
#4 Tennessee x		7	–	1		11	–	2
#3 Florida %		6	–	2		10	–	2
#13 South Carolina		5	–	3		9	–	3
#22 Georgia		5	–	3		8	–	4
Kentucky		1	–	7		2	–	9
Vanderbilt		0	–	8		2	–	9
Western Division
#7 LSU xy$		5	–	3		10	–	3
Auburn x		5	–	3		7	–	5
Ole Miss		4	–	4		7	–	4
Alabama		4	–	4		7	–	5
Arkansas		4	–	4		7	–	5
Mississippi State		2	–	6		3	–	8
Championship: LSU 31, Tennessee 20
$ – BCS representative as conference champion % – BCS at-large representative x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Rankings from AP Poll

	1	2	3	4	Total
• MTSU	14	10	6	7	37
Vanderbilt	0	28	0	0	28

Location: Nashville, TN
Game start: 12:49 p.m.
Game attendance: 39,885
Game weather: 88°, Partly cloudy

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Alabama	0	6	3	3	12
Vanderbilt	3	3	0	3	9

Location: Nashville, TN.
Game start: 4:18 p.m.
Game attendance: 3,7318
Television network: JPS

	1	2	3	4	Total
Richmond	10	6	0	6	22
• Vanderbilt	7	7	14	0	28

Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Game start: 10:11 a.m
Game attendance: 23,107

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Auburn	7	0	14	3	24
Vanderbilt	0	0	14	7	21

Location: Nashville, TN
Game start: 9:45 a.m.
Game attendance: 39,366

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Georgia	14	10	6	0	30
Vanderbilt	0	7	7	0	14

Location: Nashville, TN.
Game start: 5:10 p.m.
Game attendance: 31,847

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vanderbilt	0	7	7	0	14
• 16 South Carolina	14	5	13	14	46

Location: Durham, SC
Game start: 3:19 p.m.
Game attendance: 83,104

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Vanderbilt	0	14	21	7	42
Duke	7	7	0	14	28

Location: Durham, NC
Game start: 5:38 p.m.
Game attendance: 18,332

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vanderbilt	0	0	0	13	13
• Florida	24	13	28	6	71

Location: Gainesville, FL
Game start: 5:00 p.m.
Game attendance: 85,052

The 2001 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented the Vanderbilt University in the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by head coach Woody Widenhofer in his fifth year as the head coach, the Commodores finished with a 2–9 record for the season.

Vanderbilt was led by Greg Zolman who passed for 2,512 yards with 14 TD’s and 9 INT’s he had a 52.1% passing 186 Completes for 357 Attempts 32.5 Attempts per game. Dan Stricker was the top passing target with 65 Receptions and 1,079 Yards 8 TDs. Lew Thomas was top rusher with 675 Yards on 105 Attempts for an Avg of 6.43 and 96.4 YPG 5TDs. Rodney Williams was second in rushing with 590 Yards on 131 Attempts for an Avg of 4.50 4TDs.

Widenhofer, entered into his fifth season at Vandy, on the hot seat needing to improve his record at Vanderbilt. He met with Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee and athletic director Todd Turner in November 2000. The gist of that meeting was clearly defined: There needed to be marked improvement in every aspect of the Vanderbilt program if Widenhofer is going to see a sixth year. The general feeling in Nashville was that Vanderbilt needs to make a bid for a winning season. And if the Commodores don’t get to six wins, they need to at least come very close.

To that end, Widenhofer implemented a three-part plan during the off-season. There was some talk that he might make some changes on his staff. While he did shuffle some things around, he didn’t fire anyone. But Widenhofer had vowed to take a more “hands-on’’ approach the season with his staff and players. The second part of Widenhofer’s plan was to spreading out the special teams responsibilities to every member of the coaching staff. Bill Maskill handled those chores in the last season by himself.

The third part of Widenhofer’s plan was to center around developing leadership among the players. He thought his team lacked leadership the year before. The Commodores returned seven starters on each side of the ball. But the loss of Jared McGrath and Elliott Carson on offense and Jamie Winborn and Jimmy R. Williams on defense could not have been overlooked. New play-makers needed to emerge. And above all, Vanderbilt needed to do a better job of running the ball and stopping the run if it was going to improve on the 2000 season’s 3-8 finish. The Commodores were last in the league in rushing offense (96.5 yards) and tied for last in rushing defense (178.3 yards).

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