The Alabama Crimson Tide suffered a shocking upset loss at the hands of the Vanderbilt Commodores Saturday in Nashville, with the ‘Dores pulling off a 40-35 win for it’s first-ever victory over a No. 1 team.
Quarterback Diego Pavia was exceptional for the Commodores, going 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.
It’s almost inconceivable to see an Alabama team lose as such a heavy favorite, something that was virtually unseen under former head coach Nick Saban.
On Sunday, though, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum said that Saturday’s loss was Saban’s fault, not the fault of current head coach Kalen DeBoer.
Finebuam explained his rationale was due to comments Saban made about Vanderbilt a couple of weeks back.
“Nick Saban would have never lost a game like that. He did lose his first year to Louisiana Monroe, but he had inherited a 6-7 team, and he had a .500 team that year. But you know something, I am going to blame this game on Nick Saban. Do you remember what he said? What Saban said two weeks ago? He said, ‘The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard is Vanderbilt.’ That went up on the bulletin board. They played it all week. So, Nick Saban, this is your fault. You cost your former team the win yesterday against Vanderbilt,” Finebaum said on SportsCenter on Sunday morning via On3.
While it’s easy to see Saban’s point, as Vanderbilt was 0-60 all-time against AP Top 5 opponents entering Saturday, all it takes is one win to change the culture. The Commodores did just that on Saturday.
[On3]
