The week leading up to Alabama’s game against Vanderbilt wasn’t just a hard matchup to evaluate on paper – it was also an exercise in Bizarro World-absurdity hanging around the matchup itself.
Vanderbilt was the team with the swagger, the confidence, and the last victory in the series. Kid Rock cohort Uncle Kracker played a pregame concert, former Texas A&M renegade QB Johnny Manziel showed up in a Diego Pavia jersey and was given access to the Vandy sideline, and there was a weird subtext going on between Pavia’s mother and podcaster Theo Von, as allegedly a Vanderbilt win would ensure the two of them went out on a date, arranged by Pavia himself.
And you thought college football was getting stale.
Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban had a word for this kind of thing; he called it “clutter.” He probably had other words that could be used to describe it, too, but they aren’t suitable for print in a family-friendly environment.
The Alabama program in general seems to thrive in the face of this kind of thing, with the most memorable probably being the 1993 Sugar Bowl, where Alabama whipped Miami 34-13 for a national championship. The Hurricanes had crafted an aura for themselves built around swagger, trash-talking and taunting, things in long supply in today’s game but that were still a relative oddity in the early 1990s. Alabama snuffed it all out well before the game clock had reeled off its 60 minutes. There are plenty of other examples to be had, but the word should be out by now to any program wishing to dethrone Alabama, regardless of the era or venue: Show up, shoe up and shut up. Otherwise, you should probably get ready for a pounding.
And that’s exactly what Alabama delivered on Saturday to Vanderbilt, at least from the middle of the second quarter onward. Alabama yielded a whopping 9 rushing yards to Vanderbilt in the second half, and zero in the fourth quarter. It picked off Diego Pavia once and made him fumble as well, both in the Bama red zone – a rarity for one of the country’s most effective and efficient red zone teams (14th nationally), regardless of how Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea tried to suggest otherwise in his postgame comments. And perhaps most surprisingly, Alabama put up 146 rushing yards, topping Vanderbilt’s total of 135, which was an almost impossible consideration if you’d been paying attention to how either Tide line had played up to this point in the season.
In doing so, Alabama silenced the noise. Manziel, to his credit, stuck around to congratulate Alabama QB Ty Simpson before exchanging taunts with fans on his way out of the building. Pavia, who said prior to the game that if the Commodores “played their game, it wouldn’t be close,” was left to consider his own mistakes and perhaps the looseness of his own mouth. We’re left to assume Theo Von has a backup plan by which to fill his social calendar.
In a game that was tied for half its duration and one that could have been ugly had the Commodores been allowed to score on those two possessions in the red zone, the fact that Alabama came out a 30-14 winner ought to say something about the resiliency of the Crimson Tide and its determination to atone for the opening-week loss to Florida State – a defeat that looks even uglier now that the Seminoles have lost twice in the weeks since. If Alabama fans were craving incremental improvement and a mental reset, they’ve already gotten it. Now the question has changed: What else can Alabama accomplish in the weeks ahead?
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Vanderbilt:
1. We profiled Alabama’s OL as having an edge in its cross-matchup with the Vandy DL. Even we were surprised by the result. For Alabama’s running game to suddenly awaken – to say nothing of how it started strong, stayed strong and then delivered the dagger with a late touchdown – is a testament to an offensive line that, even after five games, we still can’t tell you who the actual starting five are. Against Vanderbilt, there was a heaping helping of freshmen (T Michael Carroll, G Will Sanders), Geno VanDeMark and Wilkin Formby playing multiple positions and this is as good a place as any to mention that T Kadyn Proctor picked up his second carry for a first down in as many weeks on a gadget play. If there was a surprise today, it was that G Jaeden Roberts didn’t get any work at all. Alabama’s substitution patterns defy logic, as the Crimson Tide has used its least experienced players in the most high-leverage of situations against both Georgia and Vanderbilt, with confidence in younger players seemingly not an issue at all. All was not rosy here; for all rushers not named Jamarion Miller, Alabama put up just 41 yards on 16 carries. Ty Simpson was also sacked 4 times on the day, although at least 2 of them were directly attributable to Simpson opting not to throw the ball away even though he had time to do it. But the positives far outweighed the negatives. The line was able to give Simpson a clean pocket for most of the day, and Vanderbilt never could count on being able to stop Miller and put Alabama into uncomfortable down/distance combinations. In short, the Alabama OL never let the Vanderbilt DL get comfortable with anything it was trying to do.
2. We also profiled Vanderbilt’s OL as having an edge in its cross-matchup with the Bama DL. Boy, did that one not turn out as planned. We’re going to take a second before we get too deeply into this and give an attaboy to defensive coordinator Kane Wommack and the Alabama defensive staff for absolutely winning the halftime adjustment game in a runaway. Alabama was already headed in a good direction late in the second quarter, but the adjustments in alignments and personnel strategy at the half completely shut down the Vanderbilt running game and visibly seemed to affect Pavia and the Vandy offensive staff. Clark Lea is probably going to ask himself why he only gave RB Sedrick Alexander four carries on the whole day, as Alexander put up 76 yards and a touchdown on those totes, but take out one play – Alexander’s 65-yard touchdown – and the Commodores rushed for a combined 70 yards on 18 carries on the day. Pavia was sacked just once, albeit a beauty from LB Jordan Jefferson, but he was harassed and forced to leave the pocket on several other plays. Alabama recorded 4 QB hurries and kept Pavia relatively bottled up when he did scramble, allowing him only 58 net rushing yards, with 36 of those coming on a single snap. The fact that this was all done without having DT James Smith for the first two quarters – he lost a game of targeting roulette against Georgia and was forced to sit out the first half of this game – was huge. Alabama got excellent contributions from Edric Hill and London Simmons, along with what was probably the biggest surprise of the day, Florida transfer Kelby Collins. While technically a linebacker, Yhonzae Pierre also made an impact from his edge position. In the end, Alabama simply had too much athleticism for the Vanderbilt OL, which was a possibility raised in our preview but with the caveat that we would have to evaluate it live to know just how much of an issue it could wind up being for the Commodores. Turns out, it was a substantial problem for Vandy. Alabama was able to consistently get penetration, or at least affect the play flow, using smaller, quicker DL that could beat the Vandy OL off the snap. If this was a test of Alabama’s general strategy of smaller, quicker linemen, the Tide coaches passed with honors.
3. Jam Miller showed some special ability, and the playcalling that opened up the game for him was well-designed as usual. Ryan Grubb’s first five games at Alabama have largely been a success, but the addition of Jamarion Miller the last two weeks shows just how much more dangerous Grubb can be when he has his top weapon in the backfield. Miller carried 22 times for 136 yards and a touchdown, and was never stopped for a loss. He added a catch for 8 yards. During the game, we thought Alabama might be getting fooled a bit by some of its OL wins in the trenches and were goaded into running the ball too much, but upon reflection after the game, the mix was probably about where it needed to be. The key issue going forward is to figure out whether Kevin Riley needs to be given his own set of plays or whether he can run the full offense, because he was only able to net 17 yards on 5 carries today and didn’t appear to be able to work the creases like Miller could. Daniel Hill got in the game but didn’t get a carry, which makes us wonder if he’s gone around Richard Young on the depth chart. This is still a work in progress at running back, but Alabama may not have won this game without Miller’s work. The fact he was able to punctuate it with the final touchdown of the day seems appropriate.
4. Ty Simpson outplayed Diego Pavia and continues to push his ceiling up with each passing week. This was the most intriguing of all the close matchups of the week, because the quarterback position is what it is. Diego Pavia didn’t play poorly, but Ty Simpson was masterful in his efficiency and made the big plays when they had to be made. While total offensive yardage favored Simpson only 334 to 256 (due to Pavia’s work as a runner), Pavia averaged just 5.7 yards per pass attempt and finished the day with a QBR of 53.3. Simpson, meanwhile, averaged a blistering 11.0 yards per attempt and logged a QBR of 80.6. But for all the downfield shots and needle-threading accuracy, the play of the game might very well have been a 9-yard pass to Isaiah Horton on third down in his own territory – the drive that would culminate in Conor Talty’s final field goal of the day that gave Alabama a two-score lead. Simpson was scrambling to his right and fast running out of room, when he spotted Horton and lobbed a short pass into the only spot it could have been successfully thrown. The play extended the drive, Talty hit the kick and the game effectively ended there. We’ve been discussing Simpson’s developmental arc all year and comparing it to that of Jake Coker; it’s probably time to readjust those targets. There are a lot of good quarterbacks in the SEC, but asking whether Ty Simpson may be the best of all of them is no longer a crazy question.
5. Alabama’s WRs were thought to be a mismatch for Vandy’s DBs – as was the reverse – and it turned out to be exactly that on both sides. Vanderbilt’s lone, true offensive weapon as a receiver is TE Eli Stowers, and he either had a very bad day or Alabama made him have one. Stowers was a non-factor, catching 3 passes for 22 yards with a critical drop on Vanderbilt’s last full drive. Alabama’s defensive backs kept damage elsewhere to a minimum, too; Junior Sherrill caught 6 passes, but only for a meager 49 yards, while Tre Richardson was mostly shut out (2 catches, 6 yards). But if you wanted to see a real mismatch, flip to the opposite: Alabama’s wideouts against the Vanderbilt secondary. Alabama’s three starting receivers – Germie Bernard, Ryan Williams and Isaiah Horton – each averaged 16.3 yards per catch or better. Tight end Josh Cuevas was to the Vanderbilt second level what Stowers was to Alabama’s in 2024. Alabama could get separation almost at will, and the only thing that kept Ty Simpson from crossing the 400-yard mark in passing was the fact the running game was working so well that it kept stealing passing opportunities. Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, if the Commodores face off against Alabama again down the road this year, these two mismatches are going to be front-and-center once again, presuming the same personnel shows up for both teams. The Commodores just don’t have the talent on the outside of either its offense or its defense to keep up with what Alabama brings to the table there.
Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN