Even a few Alabama fans joined the rush to the field, one that would cost Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt, $100,000.
“Why not?” one of them asked, shrugging after a loss that hadn’t happened since 1984.
The stairways down to the Shaw Sports Legion 46 artificial turf at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville were clogged up as the Commodore faithful celebrated, both on the gridiron and in the few sections of stands that hadn’t been filled with Crimson Tide fans. From the video board, a clip of Nick Saban providing bulletin board material rang out in a loop.
“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play is Vanderbilt.”
After the reminder that the Saban era of Alabama football, and the invincibility that came with it, are with coach Bryant now, the sound system blasted the clean version of David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue). The fans, who had until minutes before been outnumbered by Crimson shirts began to jump in unison to the French DJ’s dance pop.
The defeat ended the honeymoon period for Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer. His first loss came against a team that scored 13 points in UA throughout the entire Nick Saban era, the SEC’s ultimate cellar-dwellers.
To make matters worse, his team looked undisciplined, the cardinal sin under Saban. Most visibly, fifth-year senior and team captain Malachi Moore kicked the football after the referees spotted it before Vanderbilt’s final kneeldown, resulting in a 15-yard penalty.
“He was much better when he got in the locker room,” DeBoer said. “Just the guy pours everything into what he does. It doesn’t make it OK, and we wanna be first-class in everything we do. And there’s a lot of guys that are really frustrated.”
It wasn’t just that moment though. Alabama couldn’t stop Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt.
No Crimson Tide coach named Mike ever lost to VU. It hadn’t even scored a touchdown against Alabama since 2007, when Ryan Williams was seven months old.
The Tide missed tackles on crucial third downs when it needed to get off the field. When it did manage to get a stop, two players wearing the number two were on the field at the same time for a punt, extending the Commodore drive and gift-wrapping a touchdown for the home team.
Even Moore himself, the captain who was so mad about his team losing to a school with an active construction site for a stadium, got burned deep on one of Vanderbilt’s touchdowns, totally losing the ball and receiver in the third quarter.
“There’s some things that we’re gonna look back on tomorrow and be really frustrated about,” DeBoer said. “You don’t like talking what-ifs, and that’s gonna be the situation we’re gonna be dealing with.”
They chucked the yellow ornament into the Cumberland River. Metro Nashville police shut down the street for them on the way.
Back at the stadium, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea had to bite back tears.
“I’ve not been emotional to this very point,” he said to open his press conference. “Of course right when I get in front of you guys, I’m gonna get emotional.”
The win was the culmination of four years of work for Lea. A Nashville native in a city made of transplants, he returned to his alma mater in 2021, but any progress rebuilding the program seemed slow.
Then, in his fourth season, Vanderbilt showed signs of life, beating Virginia Tech to start the campaign, and took Missouri to double-overtime before facing the Tide.
All it took was the perfect gameplan.
“We knew we needed to limit possessions,” Lea said. “That’s an explosive offense. It’s a good Alabama team.”
Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt, just plain sat on Alabama. The Crimson Tide had just 10 possessions, running 46 plays to the Commodores’ 75.
Some of the big plays were there for UA, as usual. Even with all the limitations caused by a defensive letdown for the ages, the offense still managed 35 points.
But with just 17:52 of clock time with the ball meant the Tide didn’t have enough chances.
Against a competent Vanderbilt team that didn’t make mistakes, it spelled disaster.
“We have to live up to the standard of that script A every week,” offensive guard Tyler Booker said. “And clearly we didn’t today.”
So I just let it go, let it go/ Oh, na-na-na-na-na/ No, I don’t care no more, care no more/ Oh, na-na-na-na-na
Alabama has to soldier on from here, but it’s been exposed.
Sure, the roster remains talented enough to make a deep run. And sure, it beat Georgia last week in a thriller. But since halftime of that game, the flaws are so blatantly obvious.
When Saban was coaching the team, it took Bo Wallace passes bouncing off helmets, kick sixes, Stephen Garcia going Super Saiyan to beat the Tide.
Under DeBoer, the only key to victory seems to be a good offensive gameplan. That’s not going to work in Tuscaloosa.
The 2010 LSU game was the last time visiting fans didn’t rush the field after beating Alabama. If DeBoer and company start dropping too many more, the crowd of fans on the field will disappear.
If even Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt, can beat the Crimson Tide, why bother?
