Column: Let's Give Vanderbilt its Due Respect By Acknowledging Its Pitfalls in Loss to Alabama
In this story:
TUSCALOOSA, AL—Diego Pavia walked off the field absent of the swagger that he usually possesses and distributes to the rest of Vanderbilt’s roster, unstrapped his helmet and stared up into the Bryant Denny Stadium stands as if he knew the significance of what he’d just done.
The Vanderbilt quarterback tried to squeeze one into Eli Stowers over the middle of the field and was picked off by Alabama defensive back Keon Sabb on a play in which Vanderbilt started at the Alabama 17. It was Vanderbilt’s second redzone turnover of the day and was an indicator that the six-point deficit that it faced wasn’t going away.
It was the uncharacteristic poor decision for Vanderbilt in a place where it’s been nearly flawless. Pavia’s offense had a 95.83% scoring rate in the red zone heading into Saturday’s matchup with No. 10 Alabama, but his fourth-quarter interception paired with his fumble inside the 10 yard line earlier in the game were emblematic of the reason Vanderbilt dropped this thing on Saturday.
“You can’t turn the ball over twice in a game and expect to win,” Pavia said. “Myself, I pressed too hard because time was limited.”
This wasn’t about talent or the environment that College Gameday created within Alabama’s version of a college football cathedral. It was more about this Vanderbilt team failing to do the things it had done all season and the things that it needed to do in order to win a game as double-digit underdogs.
Stowers and Sherrill dropped passes. Vanderbilt’s cornerbacks left a few receivers wide open downfield. It went away from the run when it was pounding Alabama’s depleted front seven. It was the antithesis of Vanderbilt football in the Clark Lea era, Vanderbilt was capable of winning but lost in the margins.
“We have a good team, and that team held the line, didn't play well enough to win tonight,” Lea said. “We're not good enough to play the way we played on third down, particularly offensively, to play the way we played in the red zone. There are real lessons for us in that ,those are things we can correct too, because those are execution areas.”
That says something about it, but let’s respect it enough to tell the truth rather than wrapping ourselves up in the moral victory or the respect that Vanderbilt generated on Saturday. This program has earned the right to be criticized after a loss like Saturday’s.
“I told the team ‘we don't like the feeling, but we earned the feeling,’” Lea said. “So now we have to understand why it's meant for us. What we need to do is learn from it. “
It knows that by now. If there was any doubt about that all anyone had to do was take a look at the back of Vanderbilt’s sideline as cornerback Jordan Matthews and depth running back AJ Newberry walked along the sideline in the closing minutes of Saturday’s game with blank stares that said more than they could’ve in a five-minute postgame press conference.
No Vanderbilt player slammed their helmet, but Diego Pavia hugged former Texas A&M star Johnny Manziel as Manziel offered his encouragement rather than planning a boozing outing to celebrate it. Sedrick Alexander visibly frowned in the aftermath of a game that he declared this Vanderbilt team would dominate. Spoiler alert; it had a chance to win, but it was far from dominant.
“We’re the best team in the country, we just didn't show tonight,” Pavia said. We didn't play Vanderbilt football. That's what it comes down to. We're pressure fighters. We didn't show it tonight. But we just gotta get back up and to the drawing board.”
Alabama outgained Vanderbilt 486-333 as well as 226-119 in the second half, it stole its thunder and possessed the ball for 37:23 while Vanderbilt possessed it for just 22:37. It went 5-for-11 on third down. Vanderbilt turned it over three times as opposed to Alabama’s one. It ultimately fell 30-14 in a game that was once 14-14.
This Vanderbilt team is upset because Saturday could’ve been a day that cemented it within SEC Championship game and College Football Playoff contention. It could’ve been a day in which it proved to the country that what it had done through five weeks was anything but a fluke.
Instead, its fourth-quarter demise sparked a nearly deafening crowd pop that’s so often been present within Bryant Denny Stadium and it made enough errors to head back to Nashville disappointed knowing it was capable of more.
“We’re the best football team in the country,” Vanderbilt receiver Richie Hoskins said. “Tonight we weren’t able to get it done. I’m upset because we lost to a good Alabama team.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
Follow joey_dwy