Goodman: The new SEC rivalry of our wildest dreams

Alabama receiver Ryan Williams says Vanderbilt is a bunch of pesky little insects that will be squished into jelly.

Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia is laughing in his sleep and on the internet.

Players and fans in Tuscaloosa are already circling the date, Oct.4, 2025. The hate is real. Bama-Vandy, the rivalry game we never knew we wanted so badly.

Welcome to the new SEC, where the scars of Alabama losing to once lowly Vanderbilt have stretched all the way into June.

Welcome to the new SEC, where cash for players has resurrected the Commodores from the boneyard of once mighty college football teams.

Welcome to the new SEC, a league where the coaches are too scared to play nine conference games and everyone wants a free ticket to the playoffs because the league is so tough.

They say football is heading for ruin, but when Alabama’s best player feels compelled to take shots at Vanderbilt in the offseason, isn’t that a clear sign that college football has never been better?

Williams went on a podcast with former coach Jon Gruden this week and was asked about Vanderbilt being a revenge game.

Has Alabama fallen this far this fast without former coach Nick Saban? Vandy is suddenly a revenge game?

Well, yes, whether Alabama wants to admit it or not. We all watched Vanderbilt 40, Alabama 35. It was no fluke. Saban spent 17 years building up Alabama’s mystique. Vandy ripped all down to the studs in 60 minutes.

Vanderbilt is so good at football these days that Alabama has the Commodores on the brain 365. Vandy was so good at football in 2024 that Georgia Tech gave its players Super Bowl-sized rings just for playing the Commodores close in the Birmingham Bowl.

How good is Vanderbilt? Few reporters in the SEC would know better than me. I covered the Commodores in three games last season, against Alabama, Auburn and then surging Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl. Vandy won all three games.

No, check that. Vandy dominated all three games.

Here’s my most recent column on the rise of Vandy. I wrote it the night of the Birmingham Bowl, and it should be one of the biggest questions at SEC Media Days come July: Can the Commodores and Diego Pavia win the SEC in 2025?

But Williams doesn’t want to hear it. To Alabama’s top-flight receiver, Pavia and Vanderbilt are just ants on the ground that will be crushed with that great big sledgehammer that is Alabama football.

Williams’ hubris is somehow bigger than his game … and he was only just a freshman last season.

Reality check time.

Alabama went 9-4 in 2024 with an ill-fitting quarterback for new coach Kalen DeBoer. I’m not blaming quarterback Jalen Milroe either. His slide into mediocrity is on Alabama’s coaching staff, which was exposed in its first season in the SEC. The defense last season wasn’t much better, but against Vanderbilt it was the worst we’ve seen out of the Tide in decades.

Vanderbilt’s offensive line pushed Alabama up and down the field all day, converting 12 of 18 third-down attempts and dominating time of possession 42:08 to 17:52. Pavia bent Alabama over his knee and then Oklahoma (and those crummy refs!) crushed what was left of the Crimson Tide’s soul.

That’s how new rivalries are carved into the culture of the SEC.

The more trash talk the better, of course, but when it comes to Vanderbilt vs. Alabama, I’m beginning to think that Williams and the Tide might not have learned from their mistakes.

Does anyone take a sledgehammer to Pavia? Just ask Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, who is 0-3 all-time against Vandy’s transfer quarterback.

Freeze should have recruited Pavia to Auburn. Instead, New Mexico State’s former quarterback has turned Vanderbilt into a legitimate contender for a berth in the College Football Playoff.

Vanderbilt at Alabama, the juice for this game has never been so sweet.

The SEC did Bama dirty, too. Just look at the schedule.

Will Alabama be so focused on the Commodores on Oct. 4 that the Tide overlooks Georgia the week before?

In the new SEC, trap games no longer exist. It’s just one heavyweight fight after another.

Ring the bell for Alabama vs. Vanderbilt, the SEC’s newest rivalry of our wildest dreams.