The VandySports 100: No. 16, Earl Bennett

Receiver Earl Bennett is one of the best in Vanderbilt football history. He ranks 16th on the list of 100-greatest Commodores we've covered.

Honors and awards: 2005 first-team All-Southeastern Conference

2005 Freshman All-SEC

2005 second-team Freshman All-American (The Sporting News)

2006 first-team All-SEC (second team by AP)

2007 first-team All-SEC (second team by AP)

2007 SEC All-Purpose Player of the Year (Monday Morning Quarterback Club of Birmingham)

2017 Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame

In the VU record book: Single-game receptions: tied-third, sixth, tied-seventh (16 vs. South Carolina in 2005, 14 at Tennessee in 2005, 13 vs. Richmond in 2007, vs. Florida in 2006 and Kentucky in 2005)

Single-game receiving yards: second, fourth, sixth and tied-10th (223 vs. Richmond in 2007, 220 vs. Kentucky in 2006, 204 vs. South Carolina in 2005, 184 vs. Duke in 2006)

Single-game receiving touchdowns: first, third (five vs. Kentucky in 2005 and three against Richmond in 2007)

Single-season receptions: fifth, sixth and ninth (82 in 2006, 79 in 2005, 75 in 2007)

Single-season receiving yards: fourth (1,146 in 2006)

Single-season receiving touchdowns: tied-third (nine in 2005)

Single-season 100-yard receiving games: tied-sixth (four in 2006)

Career receptions: second (236)

Career receiving yards: fourth (2,852)

Career receiving touchdowns: tied-third (20)

Career 100-yard receiving games: tied-third (nine)

Before VU: Team captain at Birmingham's West End High as a senior, leading the team to an 8-3 mark. Bennett rushed for 829 yards and 12 TDs and caught 45 balls for 729 yards as a senior and was selected as Birmingham's Football Player of the Year and a first-team 5A all-state pick. Had 10 interceptions and 52 tackles as a cornerback. Averaged 11 points a game in basketball.

Freshman (2005): Had the most receptions by a freshman in VU history for a 5-6 (3-5 SEC) team. Played in every game and started seven. Set a then-team and SEC freshman record with 79 receptions, tying for the second most ever by a Commodore in a single season. Ranked third in the league in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Finished third in the SEC with 124.4 all-purpose yard average. Only Commodore receiver to post a reception in every game. Had 49 catches and 545 receiving yards against South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. Became just the second player in SEC history with a five-touchdown receiving game, which he did vs. Kentucky. Had 14 catches for 167 yards, and scored the winning touchdown against Tennessee; accorded for every yard on the final drive. Was team's Offensive Player of the Week against Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina and Richmond. Ranked ninth in the SEC with 21.3-yard kickoff return average and eighth in the league with 6.3-yard punt return average.

Sophomore (2006): Started every game for a 4-8 (1-7) team. Had the most receptions by a sophomore in Vanderbilt history and at the time he played, had more catches in his first two years of eligibility than any other receiver in SEC history. Had at least four catches in each game. Had 220 yards vs. Kentucky and a 77-yard catch vs. Duke. Was VU's Offensive Player of the Week after the TSU (four catches, 81 yards, one TD), Ole Miss (10-179) and Florida (13-157-1) games. Threw a 30-yd. TD pass against Michigan in the season opener and also completed a 15-yard pass vs. Alabama.

Junior (2007): Started every game for a 5-7 (2-6) team. Had the fourth-most receptions by a junior in VU history. Opened the season with a 13-catch, 223-yard, three-TD game in a win over Richmond. Had 11 catches for 100 yards vs. Ole Miss. Ended career with six catches for 65 yards and a score against Wake Forest.

Post-VU: Bennett, a third-round pick by the Chicago Bears, enjoyed a respectable six-year NFL career in Chicago. He's been out of football since 2014, when the Browns released him in June before he ever played in Cleveland.

Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: I see the architecture to this list as follows: If you made it, you were a star. If you found your way into the top 50, you were either a really good player for a long time and/or a superstar for a year or two. Somewhere inside the 20s, and maybe a little before, we hit the players who were elite (even if folks didn't always recognize that when those players played).

Now, we're firmly in "elite" territory and so it's a matter of establishing who was more so than the others. That means we have to pick flaws or find ways to separate players in ways that may not be entirely fair to all of them, but leaves us with a process more fair on the whole than whatever other alternative there may be. Hey, you have to make a decision somehow.

The teens have been way more difficult than I thought. From about No. 23 down (that was Derrick Byars), I really had no doubt that any of the players I rated belonged inside that top group. Bennett's being first-team All-SEC every year of one's career is pretty loud; Bennett may be the only player on this list who did that, and I don't think anyone would even remotely argue he doesn't belong in this territory.

On the first list I did, about two months ago, Bennett was 13th. Earlier in the week, I had him 10th. Does that make 16th wrong? Maybe so. The best point in support of it is that I never, at any point, considered putting Bennett lower than 17th.

The separation phase of the list is my least-favorite part of the process, because explanations can make it seem like you're trying to diminish a player's accomplishments. I'm absolutely not trying to do that, especially not with a class act like Earl Bennett. But the problem I've run into in ranking is that most of the players either attained a higher individual peak (first-team All-American, SEC Player of the Year, etc.), or, attained similar heights to Bennett, but their efforts went towards winning league or national titles, etc. And in those circumstances, it's really hard to essentially tie-break in Bennett's favor, especially when he became a run-of-the-mill No. 3 NFL wideout rather than a star there. (See the note on Casey Hayward.)

Let's also recognize that things could have easily broken another way for Bennett. He played with one good quarterback (Jay Cutler), but that lasted just one year. His sophomore year came with Chris Nickson behind center, and Nickson showed signs of becoming a star, but injuries and confidence killed that by early 2007. That year, Vanderbilt's awful three-headed passing attack of Nickson, Mackenzi Adams and Richard Kovalcheck managed 2,117 yards over 12 games, and perhaps worse, 5.4 yards per throw. Bennett accounted for 39.2 percent of VU's receiving yardage that season.

The year before was even more pronounced; Bennett's 1,146 yards were 47.4 percent of VU's 2006 total. In case you're wondering--because comparisons to Jordan Matthews are inevitable--Matthews accounted for 47.7 percent of VU's receiving yards in 2012 and 49.9 percent in 2013. For what it's worth, Matthews also had a much better cast of teammates both from a quarterback and receiving standpoint.

Bennett was great and easily could have ranked higher under different circumstances. Rather than get bogged down in that, I'd just ask readers to consider that the fact that I had Bennett under strong consideration to go ahead of any of the next half-dozen players tells you more of what I thought of him than where he specifically fell on the final list.