Tennessee (3-7) at Vanderbilt (6-4)

That 26-year-old gorilla is finally off Vanderbilt's back.

Now that the Commodores have posted that elusive sixth win and are assured of a bowl bid, they have a different kind of pressure on them. Instead of playing just to get to a bowl, they're now playing to ascend up the bowl ladder.

A victory in their last home game of 2008 Saturday against 3-7 Tennessee will assure Vandy of a winning season, as well as give it a chance to get to a second-tier bowl. Of course, any bowl will be fine with this bunch after not playing in one since 1982.

For a change, one of those areas isn't on offense. After scoring 14 or fewer points in five straight games, four of which were losses, Vandy exploded for 31 points and 368 total yards against Kentucky.

Points and yardage might be tougher to accrue against a Tennessee defense that isn't the reason for that proud program's worst season. Led by strong safety Eric Berry, the defense has had just one bad game out of 10.

But the Vols' offense has been hideous, thanks in large part to bad quarterback play. A surprisingly weak effort from a highly touted offensive line hasn't helped. It's hard to see the Commodores' stout defense allowing much in the way of points and yards against this crowd.

If Vandy can come close to last week's offensive output and clean up the special-teams errors which have haunted it the last two games, it should have a good crack at its seventh win.