Column: Why Not Vanderbilt Football In Its Biggest Game of 2025 Thus Far?
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TUSCALOOSA, AL—-Nowhere in Clark Lea’s job description as Vanderbilt’s head coach does it include a baseline knowledge of pre-World War II history. He’ll admit that he doesn’t have a historian’s perspective to contextualize Vanderbilt’s Saturday matchup with No. 10 Alabama.
If it did, he’d be delving into what exactly college football’s place was in society through the recession of the late 1930s and the infancy stages of hash marks and their impact on the game. That was the stage the last time these two programs met as nationally-ranked opponents.
This time will be different. America’s eyes will be on Lea’s Vanderbilt teams as a seemingly countless amount of cameras will add character to a sold-out version of one of college football’s greatest cathedrals and this Vanderbilt team looks to win in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 1984.
George McIntyre’s Vanderbilt team took down Alabama 30-21 that day to give the Crimson Tide their first homecoming loss in 26 years. In that case, Alabama could write Vanderbilt's win over it off as a result of a down year–in which it finished 5-6 with a 2-4 conference record–but this one would be different. This would be a ranked Vanderbilt team going into Tuscaloosa and knocking off a ranked Alabama team that flexed its muscles a week ago with a win over Georgia in Athens.
The history surrounding this series and Lea’s program appears to all severely cut the likelihood of Vanderbilt finding a way to do what it intends to over the weekend–the double-digit spread does, too–but buying into that wouldn’t be fitting for this Vanderbilt team.
“We’re creating our own history here,” Lea said on Tuesday. "That's really the spirit of this group. It's not because the history of this program isn't important. I'm a part of the history of this program. There is an intentional, purposeful break to say, 'What has happened before has no bearing on what is to come.'"
What’s to come could be monumental for this Vanderbilt program, it could legitimize all that it’s done to this point. Perhaps the idea that this is the biggest game in program history and that it would be the biggest win in program history is overblown considering the lack of downside if Vanderbilt fails to leave Tuscaloosa with a win, but it isn’t all that far off.
Don’t get it wrong. This may not put Vanderbilt in the College Football Playoff, but it wouldn’t be anything to gloss over.
“Unbelievable,” College Gameday’s Steve Coughlin said in regard to what a Vanderbilt win would do as if the thought of one would be nearly earth shattering. “You got to start talking about possibly Atlanta, a playoff spot, but it would be monumental. It would be even bigger than last year.”
Those are aspirations that Vanderbilt has set out for, but haven’t seemed all that within reach to this point even with its 5-0 start. Perhaps this would legitimize it. This stage certainly appears to be something that will.
Saturday will be Vanderbilt’s second time being featured in College Gameday–the last Vanderbilt team to be featured wasn’t as talented as this one and didn’t have the opportunity that this one does, either. This one is deserving of it, as well. It’s got a story people gravitate towards. It’s a history breaker. It’s a part of the most compelling college football game of the week.
“We always try to go to great stories every week, they’re a great story and Vanderbilt is a great story,” Gameday’s Rece Davis said. “I think because of the struggles Vanderbilt has had on the field since 1920, I think seeing them rise, being an upstart, it’s easy to behind that storyline.”
That 2008 Vanderbilt team was undefeated before and after its Gameday appearance, but it didn’t truly believe it could win the national championship or play in anything more than a bowl game. The sport has changed and so has this program.
It has a real chance at the College Football Playoff if it leaves Alabama with a win and doesn’t lose its hopes if it loses.
Ask this Vanderbilt team and this isn’t the pipe dream that it sounds like to some. Diego Pavia told On3 that “it won’t be close,” if Vanderbilt is at its best. Langston Patterson said that Vanderbilt isn’t just looking to compete and that it’s going to Tuscaloosa as competitors with the intention of dominating.
It knows that this Alabama team likely won’t overlook it like it did a year ago ahead of its 40-35 win at FirstBank Stadium that dethroned the No. 1 Crimson Tide. It’s okay with that, though.
“We just got to go out there and show the world what we’re going to do this Saturday,” Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander told Vandy on SI. “It’s just a different mindset here.”
Lea says that Vanderbilt’s preparation isn’t defined by the intensity that Alabama will bring and that this game is about his program. It couldn’t say that with conviction last time it drove to Birmingham Friday night and arrived in Tuscaloosa on a Saturday morning before losing 55-3 to Nick Saban’s team, but it is now.
That’s what has to be done in order to fight history. If Vanderbilt can do the improbable on Saturday night, it will make some history that it never has as a program. Most notably, it could be ranked in the AP Top 10 for the first time in program history and would have a College Football Playoff berth to lose.
Easier said than done, though.
Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson–who has yet to turn it over this season–says that Alabama isn’t “making the same mistake” it made against Vanderbilt last season as it failed to handle success after its win over Georgia and let itself slip in Nashville. Vanderbilt says it’s not concerned with that reality, but it has to know what it’s up against.
Alabama’s receiving core is perhaps the best in the country. It’s had trouble in the run game defensively, but it has a group full of future NFL players that will take the field looking to stop Pavia on Saturday. After all, it’s still Alabama.
Perhaps Vanderbilt will prove that Alabama being Alabama isn’t all that much of a reason to believe that Lea’s team isn’t capable of knocking it off again. At the very least, it isn’t scared of it.
Time to see how far that can get it.
“Tuscaloosa will be a good time,” Pavia said. “This is why you come to the SEC, for big games like this. We’ll be really excited to go down there and check them out.”
_(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.
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