Vanderbilt Football Has Full Attention of Alabama This Time Around

Alabama and Vanderbilt square off on the gridiron on Saturday as a part of ESPN’s “College Gameday” game of the week.

Alabama is coming off a huge and rather emotional win against a top 5 Georgia team in Athens where the Crimson Tide used its offensive execution in the first half to its advantage en route to a win. Now, it takes on Vanderbilt a week later. Sound familiar? It should.

In 2024, No. 4 Alabama hosted No. 2 Georgia in what was one of the most memorable games of the college football season a year ago. The Crimson Tide got out to a 28-0 lead before the Bulldogs stormed back to take a 34-33 lead in the final quarter. But one play later, Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams jumped up and caught a pass from quarterback Jalen Milroe in front of the Georgia sideline, spun free and scored the game-winning touchdown. Alabama jumped up to No. 1 in the country the day after.

Then, the unthinkable happened a week later. Alabama walked into Vanderbilt feeling confident. Maybe too confident, actually.

“I’m not going to argue against that. You’ve got to handle success and you’ve got to come back every single week in this league. We didn't handle success last year well,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said in this week’s press conference when asked if his team was overconfident going into last season’s matchup with the Commodores.

What transpired that night on Oct. 5, 2024 transformed the entire season for both schools. Vanderbilt got off to a quick 13-0 start thanks to a defensive touchdown. But then Vanderbilt kept scoring all the way to a 40-35 victory over No. 1 Alabama. Suddenly, a season where there was uncertainty surrounding Vanderbilt’s chances at a bowl game transformed the trajectory of the program, while the loss for Alabama is what kept it out of last season’s College Football Playoff.

Since that night, Vanderbilt has a 9-4 record leading up to this weekend’s game while Alabama is 8-4.

This season, Alabama would be foolish to be overconfident heading into the game with Vanderbilt. The Commodores have dominated their opponents, including Virginia Tech and South Carolina on the road. But DeBoer is fully aware this season that this is a new Vanderbilt team, even better than the one that beat them a year ago.

“I knew a year ago, you could see and feel the positive movement that they had inside the program. You could see the style of play, it being team football. They continue to do that,” DeBoer said. “5-0, a ranked opponent coming into our house. Just got to continue to keep the focus on us. We have to keep ignoring the noise, that’s been a huge strength of our football team, and they’ve got to continue to do that.”

In a conference like the SEC no game should be taken for granted, especially in a matchup like this. There still may be some people that do not fully buy Vanderbilt yet, but the fact of the matter is that this team has played like a team worthy of its current ranking, maybe even better.

Perhaps what is more important than the coaching staff respecting the opponents is the players themselves respecting the opponent. After all, it is the players who go out onto the field and execute the plays. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson does not forget what took place a year ago, despite the fact he did not play in that game. He is the starter this year and he plans to do what he can to make sure his team does not let Vanderbilt stun them again.

“The mentality of this team has been ‘we remember last year, what are we going to do about it?’ Even though it is about us, we’re not going to make the same mistake again. They’re a different team,” Simpson said. “This is a really, really good Vanderbilt team. This is one of the biggest games of the year.”

The biggest difference between last season’s matchup and this season’s is the magnitude of the Vanderbilt-Alabama game. With both teams vie for potential postseason spots, there is no better place to be than Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday afternoon.

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