That's life when you're a Vanderbilt football player. While the Commodores are trying to establish themselves as a powerhouse football team, it will never come at the expense of rigorous academics.

Sometimes in sports, the media tends to give too much coverage to the negative stories. How many times do we have to see the UM-FIU brawl? You might be more interested to know that Vanderbilt's win against Georgia last weekend, which was Vandy's first win ever against a ranked team in that team's building, came during Midterms.

"You're on the bus all day Friday," Williams, who was recently named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week, said. "So you bring your laptops and your books and stuff. You're trying to read and type papers on the road."

With all that, how does a team with a losing record knock off the Dawgs in Sanford Stadium?

"Focus," stud wide receiver Earl Bennett said. "Just stay focused. We had great preparation on the field, and I'm sure the guys do a great job off the field getting ready for their tests."

The outside world will always be skeptical of student-athletes. There is a perception that athletes don't work as hard as other students. That is most certainly true at many schools around the nation. But to be a Commodore, you'd better be prepared to work on and off the field.

"My first two years it was pretty hard just because football takes up so much time," linebacker Jonathan Goff, a Mechanical Engineering major, said. "Then your teachers are asking you to do so much work outside class too."

"It can be pretty difficult, especially as a freshman," Williams said. "You're coming in and taking the chemistries and the calculuses, you know, those entry level classes. I mean, it can become pretty taxing."

I cringed at the thought of taking calculus again. I struggled with chemistry and calculus when I was in school, and when I was a freshman my extra-curricular activities included walking to the dining hall and watching South Park. There were no football practices to go to, and I wasn't getting smashed by 300 pound linemen once a week either.

But Williams is the type of athlete that fits in perfectly at Vanderbilt. He is a Human and Organization Development major who plans on getting his MBA and opening a business some day. He was only a starter for one year of high school football, but he excelled in the classroom.

"It was always about school for me," he said.

If you watched last week's win over Georgia, you'll remember Earl Bennett for his eight-catch, 89 yard effort that included a touchdown grab. But if Bennett, a Secondary Education major, does not enjoy a long and successful football career, he'd like to be remembered for something else.

"Basically I'm trying to be a teacher in high school," he said. "Hopefully be a coach, try to mentor some kids, help alter their life and help them get on the right track."

Pay attention, media members. These are the types of people we should be talking about more often.