On October 5, 2024, the Vanderbilt Commodores football team, with a 3-2 season record, pulled off one of their greatest wins in school history, beating the number-one-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 40-35. Although that Saturday saw seven AP top-25 teams lose to unranked opponents, Alabama’s loss marked, by far, one of the most memorable college football upsets in a long time.
Despite not having won against Alabama since 1984 and holding the largest losing streak at 0-60 versus AP top-five teams since the poll was created in 1936, Commodores coach Clark Lea came into the weekend confident about his team’s ability.
“With a great challenge comes a great opportunity and a chance to measure ourselves against the best in the league,” said Lea to VandySports.
Alabama came into the weekend with a 4-0 record after a huge win against the then number-two-ranked team, the University of Georgia, in a 41-34 thriller the weekend before. Led by first-year coach Kalen DeBoer and star quarterback Jalen Milroe, Alabama fans seemingly wrote the weekend off as another easy win for the Crimson Tide, with former head coach Nick Saban even commenting on the atmosphere at FirstBank Stadium in the lead-up to the game.
“The only place you’re going to play in the SEC that’s not hard to play [is] Vanderbilt,” said Saban on The Pat McAfee Show. “When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have, and that’s no disrespect to them; it’s the truth.”
Despite Saban’s comment, the Commodores came out firing in the first drive of the game with a seven-yard rushing touchdown from Sedrick Alexander to get the crowd going and start off the game strong for Vanderbilt. Just a few plays later, Heisman contender Milroe had a deflected pass caught and returned for a touchdown by Commodore linebacker Randon Fontenette, putting Vanderbilt at a 13-point lead with just over eight minutes left in the first quarter. Alabama and Vanderbilt then traded touchdowns, leaving the score at 23-14 to Vanderbilt at halftime. After halftime, the Crimson Tide came out strong and scored first, but the Commodores continued playing keep-away despite Milroe trying to rally a comeback. The back and forth game ended with a 40-35 score, with 13 of the Commodores points coming from Alabama turnovers.
Diego Pavia, the Vanderbilt quarterback, finished the night with the biggest impact on the field, going 16 for 20 and passing for 252 yards with two touchdowns and 20 carries for 56 rushing yards.
“Games like this change your life,” said Pavia to Bleacher Report.
“He completely dominated the Alabama defense, but I think the biggest difference was our O-line and D-line,” said Commodores fan Slater Fogle. “In past years we’ve been dominated on the line, but this year, it looked like our line stood a chance, and we were able to move them, which has never happened before.”
Without a doubt, Vanderbilt’s defensive line was one of the largest factors in their victory. Alabama’s running game was brought to a complete standstill, with Vanderbilt only allowing 84 rushing yards on the whole night, a stark contrast to their average of 198.2 rushing yards per game. Vanderbilt also leveraged their strength significantly by forcing two turnovers, including one pick-six. The defense also prevented Alabama from controlling the game by keeping Alabama to only 17 minutes on the field versus Vanderbilt’s massive 42 minutes on the field, allowing them to burn the clock and control the pace of the game.
Vanderbilt fans celebrated their first win over an AP number-one team in emphatic fashion, storming the field and tearing down one of the goalposts. Following the frenzy on the field, Commodore fans carried the goalposts out of the stadium and to downtown Nashville’s Broadway Street. Thousands of fans followed the action for over three miles until the goalposts eventually ended up in the Cumberland River. Despite the $150,000 fine coming to Vanderbilt for storming the field, fans and administrators alike stand behind their celebrations of such a historic win.
“It shows how far our program has come under new coach Clark Lea,” said Fogle. “This is a program-defining win, showing how far we’ve come in the last few years”
Despite it being early in the season, football fans have begun considering the impact this loss might have on Alabama’s playoff chances. Especially with the new 12-team playoff bracket, Alabama is still in contention, but one more loss could put those chances in serious jeopardy.
As for Vanderbilt, they look to carry the momentum from this massive win and finish conference play and the season off strong, hopefully pushing for a big bowl game at the end of the season. With Pavia in his final year and Lea looking to coach for many years to come, Commodore fans look optimistically to Vanderbilt’s future, hoping to clinch more underdog victories and prove once again the unpredictability of college football.
Edited by Eva Bevington
