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Just one week ago, the Alabama Crimson Tide secured what was arguably the most notable win of the 2024 college football season when they held off a furious 2nd half comeback attempt from the Georgia Bulldogs to secure a 41-34 victory. Just seven days later, the tide had turned — pun intended — on Alabama, as the Vanderbilt Commodores stunned the No. 1 ranked team in the country in a 40-35 upset.
Perhaps we should've seen it coming. One could've made the case that Vanderbilt gave a top-ten ranked Missouri team all it could handle a few weeks back in Columbia, and Alabama, coming off of that Georgia win, was due for an emotional letdown. That's the recipe for, at the very least, a game that was closer than the experts expected.
On the other hand, history had taught us that in this spot, the idea of Vanderbilt upsetting Alabama was practically inconceivable.
Per a tweet from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports:
“First win over a Top-5 opponent in school history (were 0-60)
First win over Bama since 1984
Most points against Bama since 1906
Only 4th time a No. 1 Bama team lost to an unranked opponent in 68 tries”
THAT'S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAMES!
Had it not been for a surprising loss at Georgia State three weeks ago, it's possible that this program-defining win would've propelled Vanderbilt to their first appearance in the AP Poll since 2013. For now, the Commodores will likely need to wait and stack up a few more wins before Clark Lea's squad earns that distinction.
Next week, Vandy will head to Lexington, and Diego Pavia will have his hands full as the Commodores take on a Kentucky squad that secured a big-time upset of their own last week against Ole Miss. Looking at the remainder of Vanderbilt's schedule, you'll see that there are three more opportunities for the Commodores to make history and knock off another highly-ranked opponent.
