Takeaways from Vanderbilt Football's 45-38 Win Over Auburn

NASHVILLE—Vanderbilt football squeaked out a 45-38 overtime win over Auburn on Saturday and moved to 8-2 on the season.

Here's some takeaways from that outing.

Vanderbilt stays alive

Back against the wall. A College Football Playoff season in the balance. A seemingly easy opportunity to throw it all away. Yet, Vanderbilt found a way out and won.

The Commodores still have everything out in front of them.

That’s the resounding takeaway coming out of Saturday. Vanderbilt didn’t have to do it any particular way—and it didn’t do it the expected way— it just had to win.

It did just that.

A classic game

This thing had everything.

It had a remarkable comeback. It had stars making plays that only stars can make. It had a thrilling overtime. It had a crowd as good as FirstBank Stadium has had in recent memory.

It was everything that people love about college football.

How about Diego Pavia?

That was perhaps the best game Pavia has played at Vanderbilt.

The Vanderbilt quarterback went for over 300 yards through the air, over 100 on the ground, didn’t turn it over and answered the call in all the big moments.

What a performance. What a player.

An unacceptable start

Before Vanderbilt could blink, it was down 14-3 and was playing from behind against one of the nation’s best defenses. That’s not a recipe for success.

Perhaps it was this team running out of gas after a long pre-bye week, perhaps it had something to do with the illness that went around this program throughout the week. Whatever the reason was, this program was nowhere near good enough at the beginning of Saturday’s game.

That’s now two weeks in a row that this team has come out flat.

Nobody has done to Auburn’s defense what Vanderbilt did

The Tigers hadn’t given up more than 24 points in any game this season. By the 14-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt had 31 points and the lead.

A game that had the feel of a slugfest prior to kickoff was more like a shootout despite Auburn’s prolific defense, its historically poor offense taking the field and Vanderbilt’s offense that hasn’t always predicated itself on explosive plays.

The Tigers finished with 563 yards while Vanderbilt went for 544 through the air, 167 on the ground, three touchdowns and saw Tre Richardson as well as Eli Stowers go over 100 receiving yards on the day. Vanderbilt appeared to be worn out on the line of scrimmage at times and struggled defensively, but its offense answered the call.

What a game for Eli Stowers

Stowers took a massive hit over the middle on a late-fourth quarter drive, sat on the field for around a minute, popped up and walked off with trainers. A few plays later, Stowers was back on the field going back into the fight.

The moment embodied Vanderbilt and Auburn’s Saturday battle in which both teams had to pop back up off the mat multiple times to build towards a win on Saturday. It was an outing in which both teams could’ve won and probably deserved to. Only one could, though.

Stowers helped Vanderbilt’s case with a 12-catch, 122 yard performance that was among his best since arriving at Vanderbilt prior to the 2024 season.

Vanderbilt’s cornerback play and pass rush

Auburn’s offense had largely been bottled prior to Saturday’s game, but appeared to flip a switch on Saturday.

Vanderbilt has to take some fault for that at a point. The Commodores gave Auburn quarterback Ashton Daniels far too much time on Saturday and often lost one-on-ones to Auburn’s receivers. It was far from the Commodore defense’s best performance.

They did step up when the moment was big enough, though.