It is a top 25 battle in the SEC as Vanderbilt travels to Tuscaloosa to face the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide are coming off a massive win over Georgia, while Vanderbilt is 5-0 for the first time since the 2008 season. With College Game Day making an appearance at the game, this is one of the biggest games of the Week 6 slate, and these are some bold predictions for the game.
Vanderbilt remains undefeated on the season, and overall, the team has been dominant. After a Week 1 victory over Charleston Southern at home, Vandy hit the road for the next two games. First, it was a 44-20 win over Virginia Tech, and then a 31-7 win over a ranked South Carolina team. Since then, the Commodores have won over Georgia State and Utah State. The game with Utah State is the closest game the team has played all year, winning 55-35.
Meanwhile, Alabama has rebounded from the team's Week 1 loss. After falling to Florida State 31-17, the team beat UL Monroe and Wisconsin. Then, after an open week, Alabama hit the road, where the Georgia Bulldogs would see their 33-game home winning streak snapped. While the Tide did not score a point in the second half, the defense was great, and Alabama won the game 24-21.
Ty Simpson passes for 300 yards
The Alabama offense has been solid this season. The team is 15th in the nation in points per game while sitting 24th in yards per game. Ty Simpson has led this offense and played well all year. On the season, he has completed 88 of 127 passes for 1,138 yards and 11 touchdowns. Further, he has now thrown an interception and has been sacked four times. Meanwhile, he has run for 57 yards and scored twice on the ground.
Simpson already has one game in which he passed for over 300 yards, and last week, he passed for 276 yards against the Georgia defense. He will hit 300 yards again this week, but it will be out of necessity. To begin with, the Alabama running attack has been horrendous. While the team is 105th in the nation in rush attempts per game, they average just 3.9 yards per carry, which is 85th in the nation.
Meanwhile, the strength of the Vanderbilt defense has been against the run. Vandy allows just 3.3 yards per carry on the ground, while sitting 15th in the nation in opponent rushing yards per game. The pass defense is 69th in the nation in passing yards per game, but also 24th in yards per attempt. If Alabama is going to move the ball, it is going to be through the air with short passes until the team breaks open a big one.
Diego Pavia is the story once again
The Vanderbilt offense has been amazing this year, sitting first in the nation in points per game, second in yards per play, and 11th in yards per game. Much of that has been on the ground, sitting 14th in the nation in rushing yards per game. Still, the team is also 32nd in the nation in passing yards per game, and the offense moves the ball in chunks. The team averages 7.8 yards per play this season.
Diego Pavia has led the way for Vanderbilt. He has completed 94 of 126 passes for 1,211 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has been intercepted three times, but has been sacked just three times for a loss of 12 yards. The quarterback has also been great on the ground. He has run for 294 yards and two touchdowns this year. In his last two games, Pavia has taken off. Over the last two games, he has thrown for 566 yards with six touchdowns, while running for 165 yards and two scores.
Last year against Alabama, he threw for 252 yards and two scores while running for 56 yards. The Alabama defense knows what to expect in this game, but it will not be enough as Pavia puts himself in the Heisman conversation.
Vanderbilt makes school history
Winning six games at Vanderbilt is normally the sign of a successful season. Since 1979, Vanderbilt has won six games in a season just eight times. The last time the team did that in back-to-back seasons was 2012 and 2013 under James Franklin. Still, a 6-0 start would be even more historic. The last time the Commodores started 6-0, the head coach was Dan McGugin in his 24th year at the helm. The conference the school played in is now known as the SoCon, an FCS-level conference.
Teams in that conference included the VPI Gobblers, now known as Virginia Tech, and now Division-III schools Wahsington and Lee, and Sewanee. The conference was won by the Georgia Tech Golden Tornado, who won the Rose Bowl and earned a share of the national title. It was the 1928 season when Vanderbilt was last 6-0.
Vanderbilt has a chance to be 6-0 this year. They had a chance to go 6-0 back in 2008, but lost on the road to Mississippi State. The team is back on the road this week and once again against a conference foe. This year, the Dores make it to 6-0.
The Alabama defense has shown three weak spots this year. The first is against the run, sitting 75th in the nation in opponent rushing yards per game. Vanderbilt is great on the ground, and having a mobile quarterback has been difficult for Bama in recent years. Second, while being solid against the pass, the team is also second in the nation in opponent passing plays per game and 43rd in yards per attempt. Vanderbilt is great at moving the ball in chunks. Finally, Alabama is 89th in the nation on defensive third-down percentage. Vanderbilt is third in the nation in third-down conversions. This is going to be a close one, but the Commodores get the upset on the road.
