Vanderbilt’s win over Alabama on Saturday was huge for several reasons. It was the Commodores’ first-ever win over a top-ranked team and the first win over the Crimson Tide since 1984, snapping a 23-game losing streak. It also gave Vanderbilt a chance to throw comments made by former Alabama coach and current College GameDay host Nick Saban back in his face.
And the Commodores did not miss that chance.
Two weeks before Vanderbilt’s win over Alabama, Saban was on The Pat McAfee Show. Saban, who was 5-0 against Vanderbilt as a coach (4-0 with Alabama, 1-0 with LSU) made it clear that while the SEC schedule featured a lot of tough road games, Vanderbilt was the one exception.
“The only place you play in the SEC that’s not hard to play in is Vanderbilt,” Saban said. “When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have. And that’s no disrespect to them it’s just the truth. When we played in Nashville, we had more fans, Alabama fans, than what they had, Vanderbilt fans.”
Bump. https://t.co/B4h3iIz4C7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 5, 2024
To be fair to Saban, he’s not the only person to make that observation. After Vanderbilt picked up the game-sealing first down, announcer Tom Hart noted that “The Vanderbilt fans were outnumbered.”
Still, when Saturday’s upset was complete, the former Alabama coach’s interview was played for everyone at FirstBank Stadium to hear.
NO WAY#Vandy played this quote from Nick Saban after the upset over Alabama:
“The only place that’s not hard to play in the SEC is Vanderbilt.” pic.twitter.com/QDfGufSQol
— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) October 5, 2024
And it wasn’t played just once, or even twice. Columnist Steven Godfrey posted on X that the comments were played “on a loop, over and over.”
Vanderbilt Stadium is playing Saban’s comments about their stadium from the Pat McAfee Show on a loop, over and over
— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) October 6, 2024
[Billy Derrick on X, Steven Godfrey on X]
About Michael Dixon
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