Vanderbilt ranked No. 1 in nation in red zone efficiency... sort of

I'm not kidding. Vandy is really ranked No. 1 in the nation in red zone efficiency. The Commodores score 100 percent of the time when they start a play in the red zone.

That's the good news. The bad news? The Commodores are tied with Stanford, Oklahoma State, California, Nevada, East Carolina, Duke, South Carolina, Arkansas, Central Florida, Illinois, Pittsburgh, USC, Washington, BYU, Cincinnati, Memphis, Oregon State, San Jose State, Western Kentucky, Mississippi State and Florida Atlantic.

Oh, and Vandy's only been in the red zone four times all season. So while we're four for four in the red zone in three games, Stanford is 19 for 19 in the same number of games. So we're 100 percent and Stanford's 100 percent, but I bet Stanford feels better about its offense.

While the Ole Miss game made Vandy fans feel better about the offense, we've still got a long, long way to go. For example, Vandy is 54th in rushing offense but 110th in passing offense and 106th in total offense. Sure, we're no longer 119th in total offense, but I'll say we've improved when we at least have a double-digit ranking.

On defense, we're ranked 104th in rushing defense, 64th in passing efficiency defense, 82nd in total defense and 58th in scoring defense.

On the bright side of things, we're 23rd in turnover margin and 16th in tackles for loss.

But we should also remember that nearly every other team in America has opened its season with a bunch of second-tier teams.