Today, we launch the VandySports 100, our ranking of the 100 best players to play at Vanderbilt since we started covering VU athletics in 2003.

We'll start our release of the top 100 next week. For the next 10 weeks, we plan to release two athletes each day from Monday to Friday, starting with Nos. 100 and 99 on Monday. We also wanted to honor the 25 who just missed the cut with an "honorable mention" nod today.

Here's what we considered in our ranking, and roughly in this order:

- How much did you contribute towards winning? If you were a key player on championship teams, that counts a lot.

- Some great players get a pass on winning. It wasn't Jay Cutler's fault that he was surrounded by a poor cast.

- Were you great, and how great were you? A peak season with a league Player of the Year, All-American or an All-Southeastern Conference selection means a lot. We also took into account where the voters whiffed; for instance, Will Toffey not getting All-SEC honors in 2017 was absurd.

- How good was the body of your career? Players like Matt Buschmann and Brad Tinsley may have never been stars, but they played key roles for four years and contributed a lot over time to winning.

- Were you a good teammate? That's not always easy for us to know, but there are instances when it's obvious that you're not.

NOTE: Some players just didn't play enough to be considered. For example, Darius Garland is absolutely one of the best 100 players we covered, but played just four games. The same goes for Aaron Nesmith, who played just 46 games. Nesmith was an outstanding player, but never won a Southeastern Conference game and racked up huge numbers this past season against a weak out-of-conference slate.

101. Jared Pinkney (football, '2016-19): Pinkney had one terrific year, catching 50 balls for 774 yards (15.9) and seven TDs in 2018. For his career, Pinkney, a tight end, caught 114 balls for 1,560 yards (13.7) and had PFF season grades of 53, 68, 79 and 54.

102. Sean Richardson (football, 2008-11): Richardson, a safety who played in 49 career games and started the last 31, had 179 total tackles (assists count as a half-tackle), 17 stops for loss, 10 pass break-ups, three sacks, once interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery (which went for a touchdown in the 2008 Music City Bowl). He went on to a 30-game career as a reserve for the Packers from 2012 to 2015.

103. Patrick Benoist (football, 2006-09): Benoist, an undersized linebacker with portions of his career slowed by injury, played 41 games, racking up 179 tackles (16 for loss), 8.5 stacks, nine break-ups, four fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. He was a second-team All-SEC pick by the coaches and writers on the 2008 bowl team.

104. Corey Smith (basketball, 2001-05): Smith, a forward built like a linebacker, started 87 of 124 career games, scoring 950 points while gathering 425 rebounds, 203 assists and 95 steals. Smith was a perfect complimentary player who was competent at a bit of everything. He played and defended hard, and also efficient: he had a career 53 percent effective field goal mark, shot 75 percent from the line and had 1.1 assists per turnover.

105. Alex Gordon (basketball, 2004-08): Gordon could have been a scorer--he had 30 points in a win over Tennessee as a freshman--but instead, accepted his role of setting the table for others. Gordon scored 1,007 points, dished out 335 assists and had 101 steals, and started on the Sweet 16 squad of 2008.

106. Tim Fugger (football, 2008-11): Fugger starred at defensive end as a senior, earning All-SEC honors with 7.5 sacks and 13.5 stops for loss. That got him drafted in Round 7 by the Colts the next year, though he never played an NFL game. Fugger, who came to VU as a tight end, had 74.5 career tackles, 20.5 sacks, 12 sacks and two fumble recoveries. Vanderbilt doesn't keep career records for forced fumbles, but his eight might be a record if it did.

107. Stephen Weatherley (football, 2013-15): Weatherly, a tremendous athlete and a two-way star in high school, was a reserve defensive end in his freshman season under James Franklin, then, became an outside linebacker under Derek Mason. He never played much of a role on a good team, but had 13.5 tackles for loss on an awful 2014 squad. Career numbers: 99.5 tackles (27 for loss), 19.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and two recoveries. A seventh-round pick of the Vikings after he turned pro after his junior year, Weatherly had six sacks in 49 games for Minnesota before signing with Carolina this offseason.

108. Jason Delay (baseball, 2014-17): Delay platooned at catcher for most of his four-year career and was regarded mostly as an excellent defender. However, Delay was also an underrated offensive player who hit .276/.356/.383 over 674 career plate appearances. Delay, now playing in the Pittsburg organization, hit .234/.286/.398 in AA last year.

109. Rob Lohr (football, 2009-12): Lohr never earned all-star honors, but was an underrated defensive tackle who had 78 solo stops, 44 assists, 31.5 stops for loss, 19.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He had 11.5 tackles for loss in each of his junior and senior years.

110. Matt Ruppenthal (baseball, 2015-17): Ruppenthal was a bit wild (a 15 percent free pass rate) but was otherwise a terrific relief option for the Commodores, posting a 2.77 career ERA while allowing just 1.26 runners per inning, while often pitching in clutch situations. He went 8-4 with four saves over 110 1/3 innings for his career. He pitches in the Astros organization, and had a 5-7 record, two saves and a 4.33 ERA over 99 2/3 innings last season.

111. Alex Feinberg (baseball, 2005-08): Feinberg was never a star, but started 213 of his 226 career games, batting .320/.392/.409 and was the team's regular second baseman the last three seasons, while starting some at third as a freshman. He played 81 games over two seasons in the minors.

112. Julian Infante (baseball, 2016-19): Infante hit .256/.337/.447 with 31 home runs over a four-year career and looked like a star after hitting .315/.387/.518 with 11 homers as a sophomore. A slump to start 2018 ruined his confidence but Infante bounced back with a better 2019, which he capped by winning MVP of the Nashville Regional. Even when Infante struggled, he always kept a smile on his face and was the consummate teammate. He signed with his home-state Marlins and ended 2019 in A ball.

113. Steven Liddle (baseball, 2008-09): Liddle hit .333/.418/.516 for his career after redshirting as a freshman, and was VU's primary right fielder both years. He hit .348/443/.572 in '09 in an offensive-friendly environment before embarking on a four-year professional career that never got past A-ball.

114. Xavier Turner (baseball, 2013-14): Turner was a terrific athlete, a big-bodied guy with speed (36 steals in 45 tries) that belied his size, a gifted defender with a strong throwing arm and a high-contact approach at the plate. Turner hit .3-5/.367/.374 in his career, which unfortunately ended in the middle of the 2014 College World Series with a failed drug test. Turner played professionally from 2015-16 but never got above Single-A.

115. John Kilichowski (baseball, 2014-16): In another ERA, Kilichowski was probably a two-year weekend starter. On his teams, he was a sometimes-mid-week starter who saw key relief innings on weekends and in postseason play. He had a 3.10 career ERA over 116 2/3 innings, and it probably should have been better: He allowed just 1.17 runners per inning, struck out 23 percent of hitters and allowed free passes only nine percent of the time. Kiliwchowski had arm troubles in his last season and his pro career seems to have stalled out at A-ball in 2018.

116. Ben Bowden (baseball, 2014-16): Bowden was a fire-breathing bullpen lefty who posted a 2.89 ERA with two saves in 37 1/3 innings as a setup man in on the national runners-up in 2015, then, saved 10 games over 48 2/3 innings with a 3.51 ERA on the underrated 2016 squad. Bowden is considered one of the Rockies' top prospects and ended last year at AAA.

117. Oren Burks (football, 2014-17): Burks had his role switched just about every year on campus, which had to have hurt his ability to become comfortable and reach his potential. (Green Bay believed in the talent enough to take him 88th overall, even following a poor senior season.) Over 45 career games, he had 136 solo tackles, 101 assists, 15.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, five interceptions (one for a score), 22 pass break-ups, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. His season grades, according to PFF: 53, 65, 79 and 54, over, 2,255 career snaps.

118. Marcus Buggs (football, 2004-07): Buggs was never an all-star, but had a solid career with 109 solo stops, 59 assists, 24.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, a pick, two break-ups, a pair of forced fumbles and an interception. He had 76 total tackles, 12 stops for loss and six quarterback hurries and a forced fumble as a senior. Buggs went un-drafted, but played nine games with Buffalo between 2008-09.

119. Mario Moore (basketball, 2002-16): The peak of Moore's career--11.2 points, 2.9 assists, 1.4 steals per game on the Sweet 16 squad of 2004; 13.7 points, 3.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 40 percent from 3 for an NIT squad the following year--is good enough to put him in the top 100. Unfortunately, Moore's season-long feud the next year was primarily responsible for wrecking a promising team that included Shan Foster, Derrick Byars and DeMarre Carroll.

120. Warren Norman (football, 2009-12): The Atlanta native exploded on the scene as a true freshman, breaking the league's records for all-purpose yards (1,941) for a freshman and kickoff return yards (1,050). Both still stand as school records. The next year, he was actually a more efficient rusher (6.0 yards per carry, vs. 5.4) but broke his hand in Game 9 against Arkansas and missed the rest of the year. Unfortunately, Norman was also developing problems in both knees, missed all of 2011 and had just 22 offensive touches in 2012. Had Norman stayed healthy, he'd have almost certainly cracked the top 50 of this list and been one of the greatest running backs the school's ever had.

121. Chris Nickson (football, 2005-08): Nickson would have also enjoyed a clean bill of health. After going 19-of-25 for 285 yards, four touchdowns and no picks in the season opener vs. Richmond, Nickson took a shot to his throwing shoulder against Alabama the next week and was never the same. Nickson had some accuracy issues before that--he completed just 54.8 percent of his passes and had 13 picks as a sophomore, his first and only year as a full-time starter--but also put up some nice numbers passing (2,085 yards, 7.1 per throw, 15 TDs) and running (694, 4.8 per carry, nine touchdowns). A two-game stretch late that year flashed what could have been: Following a 298-yard, two-TD, one-interception game against eventual national champion Florida, Nickson threw for 446 yards and one touchdown (but two picks) and rushed for 71 and two more scores in a loss to Kentucky the next week. The latter was the second-highest single-game total offense mark in school history at the time.

122. Russell Brewer (baseball, 2008-10): Brewer didn't pitch well in SEC games, but went 7-7 with 12 saves, a 29 percent strikeout rate and an eight percent free-pass rate over 102 2/3 career innings. His pro career ended in High-A ball in 2013.

123. Austyn Carta-Samuels (football, 2012-13): Carta-Samuels played just one year as VU's starting quarterback, but it was a good one. The senior led VU to an 8-4 regular-season mark (he missed the Compass Bowl) and a No. 23 ranking in the end-of-season coaches poll after he completed 68.7 percent of his throws for 2,268 yards, 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions, adding 115 rushing yards and five scores.

124. Kwane Doster (football, 2002-04): Doster won SEC Freshman of the year after rushing for 798 yards (5.0 per carry), catching passes for 109 more and amassing a 25.7-yard average on 24 kickoff returns. Against Ole Miss that year, Doster set a then-SEC record with 243 kickoff return yards, and set a then-team record with 344 all-purpose yards. Doster's life was tragically cut short over Christmas break of his junior year. He finished with 1,877 yards from scrimmage in his career.

125. Matthew Fisher-Davis (basketball, 2014-18): Fisher-Davis's career gets overshadowed by the last two seasons, but he had a productive career: Across 117 games, he averaged 16.0 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.9 steals per 40 minutes of playing time, had 1.1 assists per turnover and shot well (53 percent eFG, 80 percent from the line). He averaged 13.9 points as a junior.