Round up a bit, and Diego Pavia might be six feet taller, his generously listed height. Before transferring to Vanderbilt, he played at New Mexico State, and before that at New Mexico Military Institute, where he was a two-star recruit out of high school. If there was any sign of things to come, the tremendous self-belief needed to pull off an upset over the No. 1 team in the country, it was that Pavia arrived in Nashville with a suspiciously rich lore. See: the no-look pass He threw once because his helmet was completely backwards; The rivalry that had been going on till now in the state ended with a Albuquerque Journal story title “NMSU coach Diego Pavia ‘disappointed’ after urinating video”; wrestling moves He once tried on an Auburn defensive back, the only time I remember a quarterback being called for unnecessary roughness. In that context, and perhaps only in that context, Saturday’s Alabama-Vanderbilt game, a 40-35 Vandy victory and perhaps the biggest upset in SEC history, makes perfect sense.
Pavia had a lot of things to say after the win; Unfortunately for the SEC Network Standards and Practices Department, about 40 percent of it will need to be eliminated later. (“Wandy, we’re fucked!” he yelled into the mic, moments after explaining that God had given him a vision of this as a little kid.) At the stadium postgame, Vanderbilt heard a Nick Saban rant over the PA. Looped quotes. On the Pat McAfee show two weeks ago, the former Alabama coach said, “The only place you play in the SEC that isn’t hard to play is Vanderbilt.”
Saban didn’t come by that belief unreasonably; At least, it never seemed too difficult for him or his teams. The last time Saban coached in Nashville in 2017 against Vanderbilt, the Crimson Tide won 59–0. Even if Vanderbilt had lost yesterday, if Alabama’s Heisman contender Jalen Miller had staged a second-half comeback, which seemed possible in the third quarter, the Commodores would have done what they could in the first ten minutes of this game. Had not happened. Do this in a combined four games against Saban-era Alabama: Score more than one touchdown.
Troubles of this nature involve some mutual conspiracy: mistakes and laxity on the one hand; On the other hand good luck and good situation in the field. How can a team get beat like this after a win over Georgia? Alabama turned the ball over twice: Miller threw a pick that was returned by linebacker Randon Fontainet for a touchdown, and he also took a sack and a fumble in Vanderbilt territory in the fourth quarter. But in reality, the tide has just turned. The Commodores never trailed, dominating time of possession – 42 minutes to Alabama’s 18 minutes – and punted only twice the entire game. In a crucial situation, when their offense scored a touchdown with only three minutes to play, the Bama defense was helpless to get the ball back. Pavia and running back Cedric Alexander easily gained a first down and that was the game.
“When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans than there,” Saban said in a Pat McAfee interview. Nevertheless, there were enough Vanderbilt fans in the crowd to break down the goalposts. They paraded them all the way To the Cumberland River, a journey of two and a half miles they covered in a little over an hour. You have to forgive the lapse in stadium security. This was not something he had planned for.