"It’s a hell of an arrival": Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea 'enjoys the dream' after taking down No. 1 Alabama
The Vanderbilt Commodores defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 40-35 on Saturday. A week after netting one of the wins of the decade, Alabama went on to lose to Vanderbilt on the road. The win was the Commodores' first-ever win over a top five AP team in program history, and just the third time a top five school lost to an unranked team after scoring 35 or more points.
ESPN's Pete Thamel was one of the first to speak about the monumental importance of this win for the Nashville program. He posted on X (formerly Twitter) with a quote by Vanderbilt's coach, saying:
A program-changing win over No. 1 Alabama for Vanderbilt's Clark Lea, who is a Vanderbilt graduate. "This isn’t a finish point, but it’s a hell of an arrival." Lea added: "This is the dream right here. For the next 12 hours I’m going to enjoy the dream."
This is Clark Lea's fourth season in charge of his alma mater's football program, but this is without a doubt his biggest achievement so far. The Commodores have had three losing seasons under Lea, who has an overall record of 11-29 in what is his first head coaching gig.
Vanderbilt's win was built on the back of a 166-rushing game that doubled Alabama's 84-yard output. That allowed the Commodores to have the ball for 44 minutes, to Alabama's 17.
Vanderbilt's QB Diego Pavia on the win over Alabama
Diego Pavia was without a doubt the star of the night, with the signal caller seemingly able to read every play Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama defense threw at him. Pavia threw for 252 yards, scoring two touchdowns and also running for 56 yards. After the game, while celebrating on the pitch, Vanderbilt's quarterback said:
"Games like this change your life, you know what I mean?" Pavia said on the field after the 40-35 win. "It's all about hype nowadays, and I don't like it like that, but it's a reality of NIL and all that stuff.
"But just staying grounded, stay where my feet are and every single day, tomorrow we got to work on Kentucky."
Pavia had said before the game that he had watched Johnny Manziel's win against Alabama in 2012 several times and that he aspired to repeat the feat by the Aggies quarterback. He got Vanderbilt its first win over Alabama since 1984.