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Vanderbilt ends historic ineptitude vs. top-5 teams with incredible win over No. 1 Alabama
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Vanderbilt is known for a lot of things. A powerhouse football program is not one of them, but maybe Clark Lea is out to turn that around.
On Saturday, the Commodores entered a matchup with No. 1 Alabama and a game that did not appear like much on paper. After all, the Tide never lost to Vandy under Nick Saban, and the Commodores scored a total of 3 points in their last 3 games against the Crimson Tide.
Historically speaking, the odds were even worse against a No. 1-ranked team. Vanderbilt entered the game 0-10 all-time against a No. 1 opponent, and the Commodores were 0-60 in their history against teams ranked in the top 5 of the AP Poll.
On the flip side of things, Alabama was 64-3 in the illustrious history of the program as a No. 1 team in games against unranked opponents.
However, those numbers were already ancient history by the time the first quarter concluded with Vanderbilt scoring 13 points in the first 15 minutes Saturday. It was truly the start of something special with the Commodores racking up over 400 yards of offense and holding the ball for 42:08 time of possession.
In the end, Vanderbilt held on for the 40-35 upset, etching its place in history for the first-ever win by the program over a No. 1 team. It will go down as the best performance in the history of Vanderbilt football (and possibly the worst in the history of the Crimson Tide).
We’ll see if Vanderbilt can build on this moment, but the win is certainly worth celebrating, and you can bet it will be a wild scene tonight in Nashville.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
