NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores danced onto the field, jumping up and down as they tore down a goal post, carried it out of the stadium and rang out sweet sounds of victory.
Their school’s historic win against No. 1 Alabama deserved to be celebrated this way.
Sedrick Alexander ran for two touchdowns, Randon Fontenette scored on a pick-six and Diego Pavia outplayed Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe as Vanderbilt stunned Alabama 40-35 on Saturday for the Commodores’ first win over the nation’s top-ranked team.
Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) had lost all 60 games against AP top-five teams, according to SportRadar. The Commodores hadn’t beaten Alabama in 40 years, but they snapped a 23-game skid making big play after big play to give coach Clark Lea his alma mater’s biggest win ever.
“This is the dream, right here,” Lea said. “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 the 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 week after a win over then-No. 2 Georgia.
Alexander capped the game’s opening drive with a 7-yard touchdown to put Vandy ahead to stay. It marked the first time since 2007 that Vandy had opened a game against Alabama with a TD, the last time being Nick 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 within 30-28 with Milroe’s 58-yard TD pass to Ryan Williams.
The Commodores answered with 10 points. Of their total, 13 came off Milroe’s two turnovers, the second a strip-sack by Miles Capers recovered by 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 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 had his second pass of the game tipped into the air by De’Rickey Wright, who committed to Alabama and 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 last 10 seasons that a No. 1 team trailed an unranked opponent by 16 or more points.
Vanderbilt never trailed as the Commodores played keep-away, holding the ball for just more than 42 minutes. Alabama had a 312-252 yardage advantage. It didn’t matter.
Poll implications
Alabama will drop out of the top spot after this loss to the SEC’s perennial cellar dweller. Alabama now is 64-4 against unranked teams as the AP’s top-ranked team.
The takeaways
Alabama: The Tide played sloppy coming off an emotional win against Georgia and hurt themselves with too many penalties — six for 57 yards. The Tide also failed to sack Pavia once.
Vanderbilt: Lea’s numerous offseason changes paid off, and those included bringing in Pavia as a graduate transfer along with his coach and offensive coordinator from New Mexico State. … Kicker Brock Taylor also got a much-needed confidence boost after missing two field-goal attempts in the second overtime of a road loss at then-No. 7 Missouri. After having his second extra-point attempt blocked, he came back to make a pair of field goals, including a 51-yarder.
Up next
Alabama: hosts South Carolina on Saturday.
Vanderbilt: visits Kentucky on Saturday.
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