NASHVILLE — Fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores danced onto the football field, jumping up and down as they tore down a goalpost, carried it out of the stadium and rang out sweet sounds of victory.
Then they toted the hunk of metal more than two miles and tossed it into the Cumberland River.
Their school’s historic win over No. 1 Alabama deserved to be celebrated in a memorable manner.
Sedrick Alexander ran for two touchdowns, Randon Fontenette returned an interception for another score, and quarterback Diego Pavia outplayed his Alabama counterpart, Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe, as Vanderbilt stunned the No. 1 Crimson Tide 40-35 on Saturday for the Commodores’ first-ever win against a No. 1 team in The Associated Press college football poll.
Alabama fell to 64-4 against unranked teams as the AP’s top-ranked team.
Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) had lost all 60 games it had played against team in the top five of the AP poll before Saturday, according to SportRadar. The Commodores hadn’t beaten Alabama on the field in 40 years, either, but they snapped a 23-game skid by making big play after big play to give fourth-year head coach Clark Lea his alma mater’s biggest win ever.
“This is the dream, right here,” said Lea, a Nashville native and a former fullback for the Commodores. “And for the next 12 hours, I’m going to enjoy the dream. We’ve got more ahead of us, but this is what Vanderbilt football needs to be about: big wins on big stages. We’re going to go get some more.”
The Commodores scored the first 13 points and took a 16-point lead that was their largest ever over a No. 1 team in the country. Only Jam Miller running for his second touchdown just before halftime trimmed that to 23-14.
Alabama had just moved to the top of the AP Top 25 last Sunday after a dramatic home win over Georgia, which was ranked No. 2 at the time. It will be a short stay, and first-year coach Kalen DeBoer said it’s back to work for a team that wasn’t at its best Saturday.
“We’re going to find out really how much we care about each other and what it looks like moving forward,” said DeBoer, who coached Washington to a national runner-up finish last season, then left the Huskies to take over the Tide when Nick Saban retired after 17 seasons and six national championships in Tuscaloosa.
“We’ve been tested in different ways really a lot of the games here this season,” DeBoer added, “and this is a different type of test now in our response.”
Alexander capped the game’s opening drive with a 7-yard touchdown to put the home team ahead to stay. It marked the first time since 2007 that Vanderbilt had opened a game against Alabama with a touchdown, the last time being Saban’s second game as coach.
The Tide (4-1, 1-1) helped Vanderbilt pad that lead with too many mistakes, sloppy play and penalties.
Alabama got to 30-28 with Milroe’s 58-yard touchdown pass to standout freshman Ryan Williams, but the Commodores answered with 10 points. Of their total, 13 came off Milroe’s two turnovers, the second a strip-sack by Miles Capers with the ball recovered by teammate Yilanan Ouattara at midfield.
Pavia capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Alabama native Kamrean Johnson with 5:07 left for a 40-28 lead. Milroe tried to rally Alabama, with Williams scoring on an end-around run on fourth-and-1 from 2 yards out with 2:46 left.
Vanderbilt fans and players started celebrating as Pavia knelt down to run out the clock.
“Games like this change your life,” Pavia said.
Milroe’s second pass of the game was tipped by De’Rickey Wright, who once committed to Alabama but wound up at Vanderbilt. Fontenette grabbed the ball and ran 24 yards to the end zone for the pick-six and a 13-0 lead at 8:03 of the first quarter.
Vanderbilt jumped out to a 23-7 lead, just the second time in the past 10 seasons that a No. 1 team trailed an unranked opponent by 16 or more points.
The Commodores never trailed as they played keepaway, holding the ball for just more than 42 of 60 minutes of game clock. Alabama had a 312-252 advantage in total offense, but it didn’t matter with Vanderbilt going 12-for-18 on third-down conversions to wear down the Tide defense.
The visitors had six penalties for 57 yards, and their defense failed to sack Pavia even once.
Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said it’s early, and everything remains in front of the Tide. That includes both the SEC title race and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Not that Lawson expect his team to take the setback lightly: “We never want to feel this again.”