Fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores danced onto the field, jumping up and down as they took down a goal post and carried it out of the stadium, marching a few miles before throwing it into the Cumberland River.
Their school’s historic victory over No. 1 Alabama deserved to be celebrated in this way.
Sedrick Alexander ran for two touchdowns, Randon Fontenette scored on a pick-six and Diego Pavia defeated Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe as Vanderbilt stunned Alabama 40-35 on Saturday for the Commodores’ first victory over the nation’s top-ranked team.
Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) had lost all 60 games against AP top-five teams, according to SportRadar. The Commodores hadn’t beaten Alabama on the field in 40 years, but they snapped a 23-game skid and made big play after big play, giving coach Clark Lea the biggest win ever for his alma mater.
“This is the dream, right here,” Lea said. “And for the next twelve hours I’m going to enjoy the dream. We have more in store, but this is what Vanderbilt football should be about: big wins on big stages. We’re going to get a few more.”
The Commodores scored the first 13 points to take a 16-point lead, the largest ever over the No. 1 team in the country. Only Jam Miller, who ran for his second TD just before halftime, cut that to 23-14.
Alabama had just risen to the top of the AP Top 25 last week after a win over then-No. 2 Georgia. It will be a short stay and first-year coach Kalen DeBoer said he is back to work for a team that was not at its best on Saturday.
“We’re going to find out how much we care about each other and what it looks like in the future,” DeBoer said. “We have been tested in many different ways in many games this season, and this is now a different kind of test, in our opinion.”
Alexander capped the game’s opening drive with a seven-yard touchdown, keeping Vandy ahead. It was the first time since 2007 that Vandy had opened a game against Alabama with a TD, the last time being Nick Saban’s second game as coach.
The Tide (4-1, 1-1) helped Vanderbilt take the lead with too many mistakes, sloppy play and penalties.
Alabama pulled within 30-28 with Milroe’s 58-yard TD pass to Ryan Williams. The Commodores answered with 10 points. Of their total, 13 came from Milroe’s two turnovers, the second being a Miles Capers strip sack that was recovered by Yilanan Ouattara in midfield.
Pavia capped the drive with a six-yard TD pass to Alabama native Kamrean Johnson with 5:07 left for a 40-28 lead. Milroe tried to rally Alabama, with Williams scoring on an end on fourth-and-1 from 2 yards out with 2:46 left.
Vanderbilt fans and players began celebrating as Pavia knelt to run out the clock.
“Games like this change your life,” Pavia said.
Milroe got his second pass of the game tipped into the air by De’Rickey Wright, who committed to Alabama and ended up at Vanderbilt. Fontenette grabbed the ball and ran 24 yards to the end zone for the pick-six and a 13-0 lead at 8:03 of the first quarter. Vanderbilt jumped out to a 23-7 lead, just the second time in the last ten seasons that a No. 1 team trailed an unranked opponent by 16 or more points.
Vanderbilt never trailed as the Commodores played keep-away and held the ball for just over 42 minutes. Alabama had an advantage of 312-252 yards on offense. It didn’t matter that Vandy converted 12 of 18 on third downs, wearing down the Tide defense.
Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said everything is still in the Tide’s favor.
“We never want to see this happen again,” Lawson said.