Rece Davis, College Gameday Break Down Meaning of Potential Vanderbilt Win Over Alabama

The College Gameday crew is well aware of what a Commodores' win could mean for the future of the Vanderbilt program.

Rece Davis prepares to broadcast from the field on the ESPN College Gameday set prior to the NCAA football game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Ohio State Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa. on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, AL - Hidden in the slowly building buzz in quads of Alabama’s campus is a group of 10 or so media members throwing around the idea of a seemingly longshot possibility that the double-digit underdogs could do it again on Saturday.

This Vanderbilt team thinks it could do it and has said as much, but it likely hasn’t allowed itself to think ahead to what a win against No. 10 Alabama in Tuscaloosa would do for it down the line. The answer isn’t all that complex, though.

It’s one that would be all but foreign to this group if College Gameday host Rece Davis has the right read on it.

“If Vanderbilt wins this game tomorrow, they’ve proven they’re legit,” Davis said. “They might not make the SEC championship game. They might not make the playoff, but they’ve announced, if they win this game, that you’re going to have to deal with them to get there. It’s a good thing for the sport.”

Rece Davis riling up the crowd here at College Gameday:

“All I’m hearing is about how Vanderbilt is back.” pic.twitter.com/jHp7yD7PmT

— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 4, 2025

Vanderbilt has raised its stock all it can through five weeks as it’s defeated No. 11 South Carolina as well as Virginia Tech on the road while easily handling business against its three non power-five opponents. It’s done enough to be ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 and to get itself to a place in which Davis and his colleagues are paying attention to it.

If it goes and does what it believes it can against Alabama, it will see its buzz move to a different level. The national media still likely needs to see it to believe it, but they understand the magnitude of a potential Vanderbilt win.

“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.”

That Vanderbilt win saw it knock off Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama team when it was ranked No. 1 in the country. It’s routinely described as Vanderbilt’s biggest win in program history and the one that eventually put it on the college football map after years of irrelevance.

This one would be different, though. It may not be as significant in the grand scheme of things. It may say more about this program than what it did last season did, though.

If Vanderbilt were to win as double-digit underdogs on Saturday, it would indicate that the improved downfield passing attack that College Gameday’s hosts rave about as well as its cornerback room, which Coughlin questioned on Friday, is good enough to win big.

Perhaps the national story would shift more towards Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia - who says that if Vanderbilt plays its game that it can win big on Saturday. Coughlin, a gambling expert, says that Pavia has won 14 career games as an underdog, which is tied for the most times in the last 20 years and that “there’s already a mantra about him” as Vanderbilt enters Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

That mantra has gone throughout Vanderbilt’s roster and will be something it embraces on Saturday, it seems. It believes it can win despite the odds being stacked against it.

Rece Davis on Gameday choosing to see Vanderbilt vs. Alabama:

“We always try to go to great stories every week, they’re a great story and Vanderbilt is a great story.” pic.twitter.com/4WZ75oG1jx

— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 3, 2025

“Vanderbilt is a great story,” Davis said. “Everybody loves the underdog, right? Everybody tends to, unless you’re an Alabama fan and you’re rooting for the continuation of the dynasty. Most people who don’t have a dog in the fight, if you’re watching a movie, the movie’s normally built around the underdog.”

Perhaps this Vanderbilt team can make its figurative cinema significantly more compelling on Saturday in front of the national audience that Gameday and ABC will provide, perhaps it can’t. It’s here, though.

That in itself matters for this program–which has only received the gameday spotlight twice since its inception–but it wants more. It wants to show everyone why it’s worth the spotlight.

Time to see if it can prove itself with the entire country watching.

“I just think ‘undefeated and ranked, you watch them on tape and they’re legit,’” Coughlin said. “The offense is better than it was last year. We’re getting in October now, man. Everything’s
going to rise to the top, right? Vanderbilt definitely deserves the praises again.”