The Vanderbilt Commodores shocked the college football world over the weekend, when they pulled off a 40-35 upset over the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in Nashville.
The victory was Vandy’s first over a top-ranked team in school history and its first over a top-5 team. The Commodores were 0-60 all-time against AP Poll top-5 teams before Saturday’s shocking victory.
Quarterback Diego Pavia, who said last week before the game that Vandy didn’t fear Alabama, played a vital role in the victory. Pavia went 16-for-20 for 252 yards and a pair of passing touchdowns as he kept the Crimson Tide defense in check. Running back Sedrick Alexander added a pair of rushing touchdowns as well.
After the game, Pavia reaffirmed his thoughts from earlier in the week, saying the Commodores ‘knew what they could do.’ against the Crimson Tide.
“I feel like just the outside is shocked, but, internally, we knew what we could do. We feel like any week that we focus on ourselves, Vanderbilt football can only beat Vanderbilt football, and that’s the reality of it. But Alabama’s a great team, and we just played better tonight. That’s how the SEC is. It’s any given Saturday. You guys see it every single day. And so this is what it is,” Pavia said during his postgame media availability.
Vanderbilt will look to pick up a second straight SEC win this week when they head to Lexington to face the Kentucky Wildcats.
