According to my bookie friend Guido, if I had bet $10 on August 25th that both Vanderbilt and the Tennessee Titans would stand 5-0 on the first Monday of October, I would be receiving $2,500 this morning.

I didn’t, but that’s OK. To see Vanderbilt atop the SEC East standings today and the Titans similarly in command of the AFC South is to know that football’s rainbow currently has its pot of gold residing in the Music City.

No offense to that crazy lateral that once won a playoff game for the Titans on their way to the 2000 Super Bowl, but this may be the real Music City Miracle.

Especially as it pertains to the Commodores, who have parlayed Saturday’s 14-13 victory over Auburn into a No. 13 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll heading into this weekend’s game at Mississippi State.

While the Titans’ 5-0 start certainly impresses, Vandy’s dandy run is in its own universe. Think Charlie Brown winning the neighborhood playground championship. Think the LA Clippers reaching the NBA Finals. Think the Cubs…oh, never mind.

Point is, Vanderbilt hasn’t had a winning season since 1982. It hasn’t won a game after being ranked — VU was No. 19 last week — in 53 years. The school’s futility in the football fantatical SEC has led to such awful nicknames as the Commode-dores and the Dore-mats.

Even Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said of Vandy’s fans on ESPN’s GameDay late Saturday evening: “They’ve been through thick and thin — mostly thin — and it’s great to see them rewarded.”

You could argue that for all this joy surrounding the program that once marketed itself by asking fans to “Show Your Gold,” this 5-0 start might yet prove fool’s gold by Thanksgiving.

For all its smarts and heart — as one fan told the Nashville media — the Commodores still stand dead-last in total offense within the SEC and 10th of 12 in total defense heading into the State game.

It’s wonderful for VU linebacker Chris Marve to tell ESPN, “We made a statement with this win, but there are a lot more statements we want to make,” but the reality is that the Commodores must make them at Mississippi State, Georgia, Kentucky and Wake Forest — not to mention standing tall at home against Florida and Tennessee — if they’re to continue to shock the world.

Or as the sign in the Vandy student section proclaimed against Auburn: “Geeks Rule the Turf!”

In reality, the Commodores are probably looking to rule a mid-level bowl such as the Outback or Liberty. Given the schedule, it seems unlikely they’ll finish better than 8-4 or 9-3, though they may only be more than a touchdown underdog in one game — Georgia.

Nevertheless, just one more win probably gurantees them their their first bowl berth since 1982 and possibly their first bowl win since 1955.

But regardless of how this concludes, the joy and impact of this VU revival is hard to overplay. Just consider the Commodores’ commotion over ESPN’s GameDay crew setting up shop in the Commons Center on the east side of campus, which is more than a mile from Dudley Field.

“It was as enthusiastic a crowd as we have ever seen and the setting could not have been better,” GameDay director Lorenzo Lamadrid told the (Nashville) Tennessean.

“When we arrived on the set at 5 a.m. and there was already a line (of fans) to get in, I knew it was going to be a good day.”

It was such a big event that country music superstar Kenny Chesney — a huge Tennessee Vols fans — even showed up for the event.

But they didn’t just come for Saturday morning’s two-hour show. Nearly 2,500 showed up for a Friday afernoon taping.

ESPN analyst Lee Corso told a Nashville media outlet of that event: “Last week, in Athens (Ga.), we had about 20 or so people behind us on Friday.”

For now, everyone is behind the Commodores. They’re the cute and cuddly feel-good story of the first half of the college season. No matter what happens now, they’ll always know they started 2008 with five straight wins, including three SEC victories.

Put another way, noted Internet odds maker Alex Smart wrote this about Vanderbilt in August: “There’s no way Vandy is competing against a very stacked SEC East, and it’s entirely possible that they go the entire season without winning a game.”

He then predicted VU to finish 1-11 overall and last in the SEC East.

Of course, he also predicted Auburn to finish 10-2 and win the SEC West, writing: “It’s going to be difficult, but Auburn has a chance to be a real threat for the national championship this year. They can play with anyone in the nation.”

Now it’s the Commodores playing with anyone and proving, at least for five games, that brains and brawn do mix quite well on occasion.

Not that Johnson is taking anything for granted. Asked what starting 5-0 means to his program, he said, “It gives us a chance to go 6-0.”

Let that happen in the new football capital of the South and we may begin to wonder if such Music City miracles will ever cease.

E-mail Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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