Sports
The beautiful crazy of Vanderbilt’s upset of Alabama is as unreal as it is unexplainable
Kalen DeBoer on Malachi Moore reaction in Alabama vs Vanderbilt game
“They key is we turn that frustration into positives moving forward.”
Welcome to crazy, everyone. Unthinkable, unimaginable and about as unreal as it gets, crazy.
Bigger than Buster Douglas and Broadway Joe and the Miracle on Ice. Bigger than North Carolina State over Phi Slamma Jamma and Villanova Has Done It — and any upset in the history of any sport.
If you don’t believe in miracles now, how else do you explain Vanderbilt 40, No. 2 Alabama 35?
How else do you explain the SEC’s annual tomato can, arguably the worst FBS/Division I team in the modern era of college football, beating — and not just beating, but physically beating down — the greatest team of the modern era?
An Alabama team that seven days ago beat heavyweight rival Georgia, and was immediately elevated to its comfortable spot atop the college football world under new coach Kalen DeBoer.
And then got knocked out – not knocked off, knocked out – by Vanderbilt. For the love of all things Saban, Vanderbilt!
“God gave me a vision when I was a little kid,” Vanderbilt mighty mouse quarterback Diego Pavia told the SEC Network moments after the most shocking upset since Lazarus. “Games like these are life changing.”
How else do you explain it?
How else do you explain Vanderbilt – which had lost all 60 games in program history against Top five opponents – scoring the first 13 points, leading by as many as 16 and never trailing?
Never trailing.
How else do you explain a team that last month lost to Georgia State, taking the ball with nearly three minutes remaining and protecting a precarious one score lead against big, bad Alabama by taking hefty swings to run out the clock?
When the final drive arrived, when Vanderbilt stared in the face of history, the decision wasn’t three running plays and punt. It was grab the game by the guts and squeeze the life out of it.
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Four first downs later, the Commodores soaked up a field of humanity in Nashville after beating Alabama for the first time since 1984, their pint-sized quarterback running all over the field like Jim Valvano searching for someone, anyone, to hug.
“In so many ways, he embodies the program we’re building,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said.
The same program that was teetering at the end of last season, finishing 2-10 and losers of its last nine SEC games. In other words, same ol’ Vandy.
So Lea decided to shake up the framework of his rebuild, hiring former New Mexico State coach Jerry Kill as assistant head coach/fixer. Kill brought offensive coordinator Tim Beck with him, and together they convinced Pavia – who led NMSU to 10 wins in 2023, including a rout of Auburn, to come play where no one succeeds.
And there they were, in a stadium full of Alabama fans who bought Vanderbilt season tickets to get a seat for the game, dropped into this once in a lifetime moment. They never blinked in this game of firsts.
They won for the first time against a No.1 team, and scored 40 points for the first time against a top five team. In four games against former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Vanderbilt scored a combined 13 points.
The Commodores had 13 in the first quarter Saturday afternoon.
By the time Vanderbilt fans rushed the field, Pavia had thrown for 252 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 56 yards on 20 hard, punishing carries.
By the time he preached divine intervention on it all, Pavia had outplayed Alabama star quarterback Jalen Milroe ― who a week ago seized control of the Heisman Trophy race.
But it wasn’t just Pavia. This was a true, blue team win in an era of me-first NIL nonsense.
Eli Stowers, the former backup quarterback at Texas A&M turned tight end at Vanderbilt, played like an All-American with six catches for 113 yards.
The Vanderbilt offensive line, a weakness for decades in the conference that revolves around line of scrimmage success, didn’t give up a sack.
“It took everything we had,” Lea said.
Lea arrived as coach at his alma mater in December of 2020, the world in turmoil while navigating a global pandemic. He declared then, in a time of uncertainty on and off the field, that the goal at Vanderbilt was to win the national title.
The national flipping title. At Vanderbilt.
It was an utterly absurd comment for a program that not only was one of the worst in the sport, but one that hadn’t even committed to spending the money it takes to keep pace in its own conference.
But a football facility got built, and the stadium renovation began, and the next think you know, Vanderbilt had lost its last nine league games and Lea could’ve easily been fired at the end of last season.
Then Kill and Beck and Pavia arrived, and everything changed.
The unthinkable, unbelievable and unreal happened.
“There’s more for us than this,” Lea said. “This isn’t a finish point. Let’s go get some more.”
Welcome to crazy, everyone. It’s as unreal as it gets.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X @MattHayesCFB.
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