Vanderbilt can claim football superiority over the state of Alabama.
The Commodores moved to 6-3 with a 17-7 win over Auburn on Saturday. It’s the first time since 1955 that Vanderbilt has beaten both Auburn and Alabama in the same season. Earlier this year, Vanderbilt knocked off 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 go up 10-7 late in the third quarter. The Commodores extended the lead to two scores with 4:18 to go when Eli Stowers caught a four-yard TD pass from Diego Pavia.
It’s the second straight win for Pavia at Auburn. A season ago, Pavia was the quarterback at New Mexico State when the Aggies blew out the Tigers 31-10 in the penultimate week of the regular season. Two years ago, Pavia led NMSU to a win 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 win in 1984. Saturday’s win over Auburn, a team now 1-5 in the SEC, is the first since 2012 when Vanderbilt won 17-13. That was Vanderbilt’s second straight win over the Tigers; a win in 2007 had snapped a 13-game Auburn win streak that dated back to Vanderbilt’s 1955 victory.
In the years since those dual wins in 1955 — Vanderbilt beat Alabama 21-6 that season and took down Auburn 25-13 — the Commodores had played both the Tigers and Crimson Tide in the same season 12 different times. And in those 24 games, Vanderbilt went just 2-22.
The sixth win of the season for the Commodores means they are going to a bowl game for the first time since 2018. One more win will also guarantee Vanderbilt’s first winning season since 2013, when the team went 9-4 in James Franklin’s final year in Nashville.