VANDERBILT CHANCELLOR ZEPPOS HAS THE RIGHT IDEA ABOUT BOBBY JOHNSON

Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos says Bobby Johnson's not going anywhere if he can help it.

''We're not letting Bobby Johnson go over to Clemson,'' Zeppos told the Tennessean's Maurice Patton on Monday, after Tommy Bowden's firing. ''We want Bobby to spend his entire career at Vanderbilt.''

The university plans to open its pocket book. Good for them.

If Joe B. Wyatt was still chancellor, he'd be driving Johnson to the bus station right now. Of course, Johnson wouldn't be in this situation because he wouldn't have the players he does now. Wyatt thought signing players who met the minimum requirements for Vanderbilt — but perhaps wouldn't have been accepted if they weren't athletes — sent a signal that academics weren't important (see Ron Mercer). Bad football team must equal scholarly institution, right?

While we're on the topic of former chancellors, God bless Gordon Gee. Wyatt's successor — and Zeppos' predecessor — hired Johnson and paved the way for the success the football team is having now, making smart decisions about whom to admit to the university. But you can't say the university stopped stressing academics — Gee did, after all, abolish the athletic department. (Though he didn't do the same thing this year when he returned to Ohio State.) That little experiment seems to be working like a charm.

One Gee story: In 2000, Vanderbilt was playing Tennessee in the Titans stadium. It was a home date for Vanderbilt, and the Commodores had moved the game to the much larger venue presumably to increase gate receipts. Not surprisingly, though, it looked like a Volunteer home game. It was a cold, wet November day and nearly everybody in the place was wearing an orange raincoat — or hunting jacket.

Before kickoff, Gee appeared on the giant screen, wearing his trademark bowtie and spectacles. He'll never be mistaken for the Marlboro Man. He warmly welcomed the Volunteer fans to the game and said a few kind words about UT. "But remember," he added, jabbing a finger at the camera, "THIS... IS... OUR... HOUSE!"

Stunned silence.

Then somebody in the sea of orange laughed. And before long the whole vast sea of orange was tossing with laughter.

But Gee believed. He believed that Vanderbilt could be an Associated Press Top 25 football team and a U.S. News & World Report Top 25 university.

And Zeppos seems to believe the same thing, too.

He's even said he wants to be buried on the 50 yard line of Dudley Field. That's my kind of chancellor.