It was in defeat that Jay Cutler proved his mettle as a college player, the kind of NFL quarterback he could one day be. It was in Nashville, where even the losses gained him the kind of respect he still can't quite get as a pro.

As the former Vanderbilt hero returns to Tennessee this weekend to play before fans who would still love to see him in Titan blue, it is not difficult to imagine that even an 11-1 record in his last 12 starts as Bears quarterback leaves Cutler wanting so much more.

Jay Cutler didn't lead Vanderbilt to a bowl game, but he did become the first Commodore to win SEC Offensive Player of the Year, in 2005. Joe Robbins/Getty Images

It is perhaps unfair to call this, at age 29, a career crossroads for Cutler. He does have the Pro Bowl bid, if only one in 2008. And he has one trip to the playoffs, although that ended badly two years ago with one victory, one loss and a knee injury from which, on a psychic level at least, he may still be recovering.

Some who know him and Cutler himself will say that he doesn't give a whit what outsiders think of him and that he doesn't necessarily feel he has anything to prove. So why is that so hard to believe?

Maybe in part it's because his last three passes as a college quarterback, his last three plays at Vanderbilt, went for 15, 31 and finally 6 yards for a touchdown -- all to Earl Bennett -- as the Commodores defeated Tennessee 28-24 at Neyland Stadium in November 2005.

It was the first time Vanderbilt had won in Knoxville since 1975. (The Commodores won at home in1982.) After close losses at South Carolina and at No. 15 Florida in two of the previous three weeks, and a season in which Cutler, a three-year captain, became the first Vanderbilt player to win SEC Offensive Player of the Year, his place among the school's greats was secured.

But at 5-6, the Commodores were not going to a bowl game for the 22nd year in a row, and former Vandy coach Bobby Johnson remembers the conversation he had with Cutler about it last year.

"Jay is so confident and he had it in his mind that he was going to bring that program up, and we were going to consistently beat SEC teams," said Johnson, who retired in 2010. "I think he sincerely believed that, and it's what he worked for and what he wanted for himself, his teammates and for Vanderbilt.

"It was very disappointing to him that we didn't make it to a bowl and when we talked, it was eating at him still that he wasn't the guy who got Vanderbilt to its first bowl since '82." (The Commodores finally broke the streak in 2008, when they went to the Music City Bowl and beat Boston College.)

"It was bad for him. He didn't like it."

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It's the perfect place for him. A natural when he retires. Cutler has a home in Nashville and still returns in the offseason. It affords him and his family the small-town feel and one other characteristic he might not find in Chicago.

"You can see Carrie Underwood at Target here and it's not a big deal," said Cutler's close friend and Nashville resident Mark Block.

But even with Underwood traipsing around Target, Cutler is still a hero in Nashville.

"A legend," Johnson called him.

The Tennessee Titans and then-GM Floyd Reese, left, showed interest in Jay Cutler before the 2006 NFL draft but ended up picking Vince Young. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

It's an old story but one retold again this week, that Cutler may have gone to the Titans with the third overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft if not for one key dissenter in the war room.

"I think they were pretty set on Vince [Young]," Cutler said in a conference call with Titans media this week. "I think [Titans owner] Bud Adams was pretty much going to go with him." (Adams, a Houston resident, was a fan of Young's at Texas.)

"I went over there and threw a few times for them, but I think it was for show really."

The Denver Broncos took Cutler at No. 11, one pick after the Arizona Cardinals selected USC's Matt Leinart.

Johnson is still surprised.

"In my mind, I thought he was the best quarterback available," Johnson said of Cutler. "And here was a guy in his college hometown, and not only were they going to get a great player but the fan base was probably going to buy every Jay Cutler jersey that could ever be made and sent to Nashville. I just couldn't understand why. I thought it was a no-brainer myself.

"You never know who made that decision and why they made that decision. I thought for sure it was a done deal and that we'd benefit in all kinds of ways. It would have been great from them and would have helped us too."

If Cutler felt slighted, he wouldn't say. And it wouldn't have been the first time the kid from Santa Claus, Ind., was injured by the lack of serious interest from Division I schools, then downright insulted when -- according to Cutler's father, Jack, in numerous reports at the time -- then-Illinois coach Ron Turner rescinded a scholarship offer for him to play for the Illini.

Then there was the matter of Cutler's final choice.

"Not only wasn't Jay highly recruited," said Cutler friend and Vanderbilt's assistant sports information director Larry Leathers, "but he recruited Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt did not recruit him."

And like those who have played for the Stanfords and Northwesterns and Dukes over the years, Vanderbilt players have a mindset all their own.

"I just think when you come to Vanderbilt, you have a chip on your shoulder," Leathers said. "And from that day until now, he's trying to prove to people that he's an elite quarterback. I don't think he has any questions he's a winning quarterback. Tim Tebow wasn't going to win at Vanderbilt."