Column: Vanderbilt Football Could Learn a Thing From Its Past in Alabama Rematch Week

NASHVILLE—-This Vanderbilt team could learn a thing or two from the boisterous, confident leadership style of former Vanderbilt offensive lineman Steven Hubbard as well as the guts of former Vanderbilt safety CJ Taylor.

The idea that Vanderbilt upgraded its talent at Hubbard and Taylor’s positions isn’t all that foreign, but their roles in Vanderbilt’s build had as much to do with their heavy lifting in changing the attitude around a jaded program.

Two days before Vanderbilt’s students ripped down the goalposts and found themselves in a state of seemingly endless euphoria, Taylor declared that Vanderbilt was “looking forward to beating Alabama.”

Taylor’s comment brought back some battle scars for those within Vanderbilt’s program who had heard comments like that backfire so badly upon it in its past. It was almost as if nobody in Vanderbilt’s fanbase could believe an old guy was dumb enough to make a declaration like that.

Taylor was just doing what was required for Hubbard to listen to him in the six days between Vanderbilt’s loss to Missouri and matchup with Alabama, though.

“If it ain’t about beating Alabama,” Diego Pavia revealed that Hubbard said to the team throughout the week, “Then get the f*** out the way, I ain’t trying to talk to you.”

The subject of conversation doesn’t have to be as pigeonholed this week as Vanderbilt prepares to travel to Tuscaloosa for a rematch with No. 10 Alabama. But if this Vanderbilt team is going to do what the 2024 iteration of itself did, it’s got to have a piece of Hubbard’s message with it.

Conversations regarding personal accolades and things to do outside of the facility can wait. This is about beating Alabama. It’s about proving that this program didn’t pull off a flukey win last season or a 5-0 start that’s made it the No. 16 team in the country. This is about this program proving it belongs on the field with a team like Alabama in one of college football’s greatest cathedrals.

Despite what it’s done, it still fights history and a level of external doubt that indicates that it will have its come back to earth moment by the time it walks off the field in Tuscaloosa. Don’t tell this Vanderbilt team that the moment is too big for it, though.

“We know the task at hand,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said, “But, we're excited for it, and this group has positioned us to be undefeated heading down there, and that means a lot.”

As Vanderbilt heads to Tuscaloosa for the first matchup between it and Alabama since 1937, it will do so as multiple-score underdogs. It’s an eerily similar position for this program, as is the stage of the game as a whole.

This time last season Alabama was coming off of a statement win against Georgia and appeared to be one of the nation’s best teams heading into its matchup with Vanderbilt. This season is deja vu in that regard. One difference, though.

Lea’s team made themselves impossible to overlook with what it did to Alabama in its 40-35 win, that ultimately became a catalyst in the Crimson Tide missing the College Football Playoff. Perhaps Kalen DeBoer’s team could’ve theoretically looked past Vanderbilt in favor of a matchup with South Carolina last season, but those days are over. Vanderbilt has been circled on Alabama’s schedule. Yes, really.

"We don't call them revenge games. So we gonna kill an ant with a sledgehammer this year," Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams said in a podcast hit with former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden over the summer. "Every game that we fell short last year, we definitely got red eyes going into them."

Perhaps Pavia going back at Williams on social media this summer following that comment was an indicator that the team he leads won’t back down from one of college football’s blue bloods, either.

The confidence that Pavia spewed as he walked up to the podium and said that “God only knows” after Vanderbilt’s Tuesday practice ahead of its 2024 matchup with Alabama appeared to be delusional at the time. It’d be a disservice for his second Vanderbilt team to not have a similar level of belief, though.

This group has earned the right for this to be a big game. It’s earned the right for College Gameday and ABC to closely monitor what it does on Saturday. It’s earned the right for a fan in the stands at FirstBank Stadium to hold up a sign saying “Bring on Bama” without flinching.

Its mission has never been to have those things going for it, though. It’s always been winning. Vanderbilt’s press conferences and practices may be more crowded over the course of the week, but not all that much has changed within its building.

If it has, Lea’s team needs to reup Hubbard’s words and get back on track.