The Commodores came to Oxford on Saturday an undefeated team, on the verge of their first top-25 ranking since 1984.

Sixty minutes of football later, Vanderbilt emerged from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with a 23-17 win over the Ole Miss Rebels, now 4-0 and having proven once again that, this year, the second half is their time to shine.

Now Vanderbilt stands at the No. 21 spot in Week 4's Associated Press poll.
Nothing came easily in this victory though, as starting quarterback, redshirt senior Chris Nickson left the game injured in the third quarter, giving redshirt junior Mackenzi Adams his first crunch time minutes of the year.

"I was just ready, felt prepared and I came in the game looking to make something happen," Adams said.

The game had already had its twists right from the start. Vanderbilt fell behind early yet again. Following an Ole Miss field goal, Vanderbilt lost two fumbles on their next two offensive plays, the first of which was recovered and returned for a touchdown. The second fumble gave Ole Miss the ball on the Vanderbilt 20, but redshirt junior safety Ryan Hamilton stepped in front of a Jevon Snead pass, for his first of a school record-tying three interceptions in the night, and brought it back 79 yards for a touchdown that made the score 10-7, Ole Miss.

No sooner had Vanderbilt gotten back into the game, however, did Ole Miss strike back on a 98-yard kickoff return by Mike Wallace. This brought the score to 17-7 after a 53-second span in the first quarter, in which 24 points were scored, and a 22-second span in which three turnovers were committed.

Vanderbilt was quick to recover though, as they went 43 yards on their next drive, culminating in a 9-yard pass to redshirt junior Jared Hawkins, and in the second quarter they tied the game at 17, on a 34-yard Bryant Hahnfeldt field goal.

The second half, though, was decidedly defined by the defense and Vanderbilt came with key stops at the goal line twice. Once again, Hamilton made his presence felt, with a big tackle of Snead on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line in the third quarter. Then in the fourth quarter, redshirt freshman linebacker Chris Marve forced a fumble at Vandy's 2-yard line, which junior D.J. Moore recovered for a touchback that ultimately sealed the game.

Coach Bobby Johnson was, once again, impressed by the team's ability to keep up its high level of play down the stetch.

"It speaks to our conditioning. We are not playing a lot of guys. We are very thin. We are not making a lot of substitutions," said Johnson. "We just keep playing no matter what happens before. We made some big plays after their big plays. That was a big key."

Hamilton had one of the best individual defensive performances in Vanderbilt history, totaling three interceptions, a fumble recovery and six tackles, receiving the Defensive Player of the Week award from the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

"I'm honored that people felt that I deserved the award, and I'm going to try play like that every week," said Hamilton.

Once again, Vanderbilt found consistancy in senior Hahnfeldt, who converted all three field goals he attempted, and has made all of seven of his attempts so far this year. His two field goals in the second half were the only scoring plays during that period.

"It's just a different vibe from this team," said Adams. "We've had some good teams, but there's something a little different about this one. We had some bad things happen to us in the beginning of the game, but no one really freaked out, and we just expected to come back and win this game."

Vanderbilt will have time to rest up and recover from injuries during their upcoming bye week before playing Auburn at home on Oct. 4.

As the Hamilton put it, going 4-0 means a lot for the team, but, of course, "5-0 is looking good too."