On Saturday, the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide roll into Nashville to face a pesky Vanderbilt team at 3:15pm CT on SEC Network. Kalen Deboer’s team is coming off a wild home win over Georgia that catapulted them to No. 1 in the country. With two weeks to prepare, the Commodores are ready to show the country what they have for Alabama.
Jalen Milroe and the Crimson Tide offense present a massive challenge for Clark Lea’s defense, especially after what the country saw on Saturday night.
“Every time the ball is snapped, there’s opportunity for an explosive play,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said, “If you don’t account for him on the zone reads, he’s going to pull it and out run your leverage. You can’t always have an extra player for the quarterback, so you have to play with great block destruction.”
Milroe played flawlessly in primetime, but Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia thrives in the spotlight himself. That allowed him to sit back and enjoy the theatre in Saturday’s Alabama-Georgia thriller.
“That was two great teams being competitive. They had high spirit. The fight from Georgia was impressive. Just the electricity in the stands was even more fun to watch, that’s what I live for.”
Alabama’s defense held Georgia to seven first-half points, but gave up 27 points to Beck and the Bulldogs in the second half. Despite that, Pavia knows the talent Alabama has on defense and the margin for error that will reign true on Saturday.
“They’re a good defense, they got some players that will be playing on Sundays. We’ve got to go out there, be cautious of what we do and when it’s our time to punch, we’ve got to punch hard.”
Vanderbilt hasn’t beaten Alabama since 1984 and in the last two meetings, the Tide have won by a combined score of 114-3. Over the years, the offenses have particularly struggled on the Commodore sidelines in these games. Since 2007, Vandy and Alabama have played four times, in those meetings, the Commodores have only scored one touchdown.
In an attempt to change the narrative, Vanderbilt’s leader has a clear message to his team as they await a goliath.
“This is a whole new team. We have a team full of dogs who prepare every week like they want to play on Sundays. With that, the only person that knows who’s going to win on Saturday is God. We’ll be prepared. We’re going to do everything we can to win a football game. We fell just short to the No. 7 team in the nation. We have to get over that little edge and start punching some wins here.”
Offensively, the Commodores are averaging 354 yards per game, which ranks 14th in the SEC, but they’re also averaging 37 points per game, which ranks 5th in the SEC. The offensive output has been much more consistent than last season, but staying ahead of the chains and limiting penalties have been a point of emphasis.
“We get behind the chains too much. That’s something we’ve got to fix as an offense. We’ve put the defense out there too fast. We’ve gone three and out too many times. Putting the defense out there too early allows them to score points. The most important thing is not getting behind the chains. When we have consistent drives, it seems like we always score. Getting behind the chains, we get backed up and then it’s really hard to convert when you’re off schedule.”
A big part of getting behind the chains has been the unforced errors such as un characteristic penalties. Through four games, Vanderbilt is averaging 7.7 penalties per game, which ranks 108th in the country. Clark Lea said that will be a huge focus this week in practice.
“We're gonna harp on that in our process. It's frustrating because I think we've been a disciplined team with respect to penalities in the past. Its always something that we've taken pride in. We've spent a lot of time through the bye week talking about the need to clean up penalties."
Despite penalties being an issue, one player that hasn’t been issue is veteran tight end Eli Stowers. He leads the team in receiving with 220 yards and has been an excellent safety blanket for Pavia. Beyond him though, the other targets have not been as consistent. Quincy Skinner and Junior Sherrill have popped at times, but Pavia said they have to get them more involved on Saturdays.
“We need to draw up some more plays for them. I trust them against anyone in the country, so when it’s time one-on-one, you know who the ball’s going to.”
With Alabama coming off a highly emotional win over Georgia that is still receiving national attention and Vandy coming off a bye week, one might think the Tide could sleepwalk into Nashville. Either way, the Commodores are hungry for more after two weeks to think about the heartbreaking loss to Missouri.
“They’re number one in the country for a reason,” Linebacker Langston Patterson said, “It’s awesome to get this opportunity to go out there and show who Vanderbilt is and how we can compete with the best team in the country. The whole’s team’s excited to go out there and shock the world.”
“The whole team is fired up to go out there on Saturday,” Diego Pavia said, “Rando said it best, ‘If you’re down about this, then you ain’t shit.’ Get up and get back to it. That’s what we did. Sunday, we came out and we punched each other in the face all day. We’ll be electric and ready to go.”
