The Vanderbilt football program had one of its most exciting competitions of the 2024 season against Alabama on Saturday evening. The Commodores took down the No.1-ranked Crimson Tide 40-35 after a hard-fought game. Head coach Clark Lea had to be pleased with how his team performed, but looking back on one of his declarations signals he knew his team would be successful.

In 2022, Clark Lea made this bold statement:

“We know in time Vanderbilt will be the best football program in the country,” Lea said, per Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

In 2024, the Commodores are not quite the best in the country yet, but their win over the mighty Alabama football program will give them plenty of momentum. The Crimson Tide entered the game fresh off a thrilling 41-34 win over the previous No.1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs. However, Vanderbilt dampened Alabama's momentum.

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Starting quarterback Diego Pavia led the Commodores with 252 passing yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, running back Sedrick Alexander amassed 64 yards and two TDs on 21 carries. Part of Vanderbilt's offensive success on Saturday could be due to offensive coordinator Tim Beck's emphasis on the squad trying to “be different.”

“We dont want to be like everybody else,” Beck previously said, via Joey Dwyer of VandySports. “We don’t want to run the same exact plays as everybody else, we feel like we have to be a little bit different. To turn things around here I think it’s extremely important to be different.

“On Sunday when defensive coordinators start watching us on video it’s not the same thing they saw the week before,” Beck added. “We like to be able to use a lot of different personnel groups because we want to try to keep the defensive coordinators scrambling a little bit.”

Whatever unpredictable scheme Vanderbilt did against Alabama, they look to continue that execution into the rest of the matchups of 2024.