NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores danced onto the field, jumping up and down as they tore down a goal post, carried it out of the stadium and rang out sweet sounds of victory.
Their school’s historic win over No. 1 Alabama deserved to be celebrated this way.
Sedrick Alexander ran for two touchdowns, Randon Fontenette scored on a pick-six and Diego Pavia outplayed Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe as Vanderbilt stunned Alabama 40-35 on Saturday for the Commodores’ first win over the nation’s top-ranked team.
The Crimson Tide had just moved to the top of The Associated Press’ Top 25 after a 41-34 win over Georgia. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, lost 36-32 to Georgia State earlier in the season.
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 making big play after big play to give coach Clark Lea his alma mater’s biggest win ever.
“This is the dream, right here,” Lea said. “And for the next 12 hours, I’m going to enjoy the dream. We’ve got more ahead of us, but this is what Vanderbilt football needs to be about: Big wins on big stages. We’re going to go get some more.”
The Commodores scored the first 13 points and took a 16-point lead that was their largest ever over the No. 1 team in the country. Only Jam Miller running for his second TD just before halftime trimmed that to 23-14.
Alexander capped the game’s opening drive with a 7-yard TD to put Vandy ahead to stay. It marked 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 pad that lead with too many mistakes, sloppy play and penalties.
Alabama got within 30-28 with Milroe’s 58-yard TD pass to Ryan Williams.
The Commodores answered with 10 points. Of their total, 13 came off Milroe’s two turnovers, the second a strip sack by Miles Capers recovered by Yilanan Ouattara at midfield.
Pavia capped the drive with a 6-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 around on fourth-and-1 from 2 yards out with 2:46 left.
Vanderbilt fans and players started celebrating as Pavia knelt down to run out the clock.
“Games like this change your life,” Pavia said.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Milroe had his second pass of the game tipped into the air by De’Rickey Wright, who committed to Alabama and wound 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 10 seasons that a No. 1 team trailed an unranked opponent by 16 or more points.
Vanderbilt never trailed as the Commodores played keep-away, holding the ball for just over 42 minutes. Alabama had a 312-252 yardage advantage on offense. It didn’t matter.
Alabama will drop out of the top spot after this loss to the SEC’s perennial cellar dweller. Alabama now is 64-4 against unranked teams as the AP’s top-ranked team.
Alabama returns home to host South Carolina next week. Vanderbilt visits Kentucky.
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