Vanderbilt can boast football superiority over the state of Alabama.
The Commodores moved to 6-3 with a 17-7 win over Auburn on Saturday. It is the first time since 1955 that Vanderbilt beat Auburn and Alabama in the same season. Earlier this year, Vanderbilt defeated then-No. 1 Alabama 40-35 the week after the Crimson Tide beat Georgia.
Saturday’s game was tied 7-7 at halftime before Vanderbilt kicked a field goal to take a 10-7 lead late in the third quarter. The Commodores extended the lead to two scores with 4:18 left when Eli Stowers caught a four-yard touchdown pass from Diego Pavia.
It’s Pavia’s second straight win at Auburn. A season ago, Pavia was the quarterback at New Mexico State when the Aggies defeated the Tigers 31-10 in the penultimate week of the regular season. Two years ago, Pavia led NMSU to a victory over Liberty. The Flames’ coach that season: Auburn’s Hugh Freeze.
Vanderbilt’s win over Alabama was the school’s first over the Crimson Tide since a 30-21 victory in 1984. Saturday’s win over Auburn, a team that is now 1-5 in the SEC, is its first since 2012 , when Vanderbilt won 17-13. That was Vanderbilt’s second consecutive victory over the Tigers; a victory in 2007 had snapped Auburn’s 13-game winning streak dating back to Vanderbilt’s 1955 victory.
In the years since those double wins in 1955 (Vanderbilt beat Alabama 21-6 that season and defeated Auburn 25-13) the Commodores had played the Tigers and Crimson Tide in the same season 12 different times. And in those 24 games, Vanderbilt was just 2-22.
The sixth win of the season for the Commodores means they will go to a bowl game for the first time since 2018. One more win will also ensure Vanderbilt’s first winning season since 2013, when the team went 9-4 last year. by James Franklin in Nashville.
