Andy & Ari On3 - Vanderbilt STUNS Alabama (and the world) in the SHOCKER OF THE YEAR!

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. Vanderbilt stunned Alabama 40-35 in Nashville on Saturday, and everyone’s top 10 is in shambles. Commodores QB Diego Pavia said only God knew who would win. We all laughed, but maybe Pavia had a direct line. What happens now for the Crimson Tide? Has a new coach’s honeymoon ever ended so abruptly? And is this the biggest win in Vandy football history?

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three presented by Wendy's in a show, an episode that we never thought we would ever broadcast that we never thought we'd ever see Vanderbilt has beaten number one, Alabama. I'll say it again. Vanderbilt has beaten number one Alabama. I'll say it again. Vanderbilt has beaten number one Alabama. Ari Wasserman, Vandy QB Diego Pavia said during the week, only God knows who's going to win this game. Do you think God told Diego Pavia?

I mean, I was mocking him for saying that, and I've put rubber all over my body so I don't get struck down by lightning Andy I I cannot believe uh what I just watched and you know here's the the thing that I'm going to say about this game that struck out I said struck out because of the lightning I'm still you know uh usually when we see games like this a team team has a bunch, a team like Alabama has a bunch of turnovers, they're sleepwalking, dumb penalties, they get down and they never snap out of it. This game, Alabama got back into it very early in the second half, got down to very early in the second half. Very easy to think that they were just going to run away with it once they weathered the storm. And this Vanderbilt team beat the crap out of them. And they beat the crap out of them over and over and over again. There were a lot of games

swinging momentum plays. Ryan Williams did what Ryan Williams does. There were very many moments in that game in the second half where it felt like Alabama was just going to go win. Vanderbilt didn't just hold on to an early lead from sleepwalking. They went out and took that game from them. They did it on offense. Time and time again, the entire game. One huge defensive play, the sack fumble, was a monster play. I mean, because at that time it still felt like, okay, Alabama's going to come score here.

They're going to be fine. That was it. And then Vandy takes it and scores. And the sheer cojones to throw on second down there as they're running out the clock. And you have to do stuff like that if you want to slay a giant, if you want to slay the monster the sheer cojones but diego pavi if we've learned anything they're the size of coconuts coconuts probably aren't big enough what's bigger than a coconut bowling boulders bowling ball bowling balls and i mean unbelievable how many coaches in clark lee's position there would have ran three times and punted

uh well chris can chat mandy did what mark stoops was afraid to do against georgia there you go they remember they had the fourth and two play where they scored the touchdown. This is everything you want in a game. Every gutsy call. When you are Vandy trying to beat Alabama, you have to do that. You have to make those gutsy calls. Do you want to talk about Mark Stoops again? Because we could do that. No. The difference between this, though, and that Georgia-Kentucky game was

that if you were watching it and you didn't know whose logo belonged to who, Vanderbilt looked like the better team the entire game. It wasn't just some fluke, I can't believe this game is close. Vanderbilt beat them. Yes!

Why on earth? They just beat them they just beat them from start to finish and and times where they could have folded or gone conservative could have ran the clock tried to play not to lose they could have lost five to seven different times in that second half and they kept fighting and they kept punching and I have to say, like, again, maybe prisoner of the moment me. We've seen a lot of upsets. We've seen Henai U beat Notre Dame. That was one of the most impressive ones I've ever seen because it wasn't just a bad game on the wrong day. It was a team that just went out and beat that team.

And I feel like Vanderbilt could do it again after watching that. You got the Ryan Williams magic, and it still didn't matter. It still wasn't enough. Vanderbilt, like Diego Pavia magic was better than Ryan Williams magic. It was incredible. And he just kept coming back and making plays. What about just the physicality too, Andy, of just like running the ball up the gut over and over and over again

and picking up three, five, seven. I mean, they were running on them. They were creative offensively. They were converting on crucial third downs. They were making hard catches. Because that Diego Pavia throw that everybody was going crazy on, where he kind of just was running around like a chicken with his head cut off and threw it and lofted it up like the catch there like vanderbilt literally did every single thing a team had to do to beat alabama

and it wasn't about outlasting them it was about beating them and like i i don't know i feel like i have to write something about this because you're at the florida game i'm trying to contextualize what i'm going to write i I cannot believe what I just saw. And I'm in a pretzel right now, too, because I don't even know how to rank top 10 teams anymore. I don't even know where to begin with that. We'll get to that later on in the show. But what do I do with this?

And the thing that's crazy about it, too, Andy, is it's not just they just lost to Vanderbilt. We're seven days removed from them beating the crap out of Georgia for three quarters. It's not just like... lost to Vanderbilt. We're seven days removed from them beating the crap out of Georgia for three quarters. Like, it's not just like – Less than a week ago. We're on fraud watch with Alabama seven days after they beat Georgia? Like, this isn't just like an Alabama team who came in like Mizzou,

who was top five before the year started, played a bunch of nobodies, won 40-17, and then just lost the first time they were tested like we are a week removed from them beating the juggernaut of the sport yeah i don't know how how this works like in terms of contextualizing it on the national front because the vandy of it all is what makes this so tough. But can we maybe agree that Vandy's good? Like they beat Virginia. I think they're good.

Yeah. They, they should have beaten Missouri. Like Vandy's good. So let's, they didn't lose to Georgia state, but yeah, this is crazy. Andy, I think what you're trying to say, though, just to save you from it getting clipped. And I agree with you is that this isn't Vandy from five years ago. Like this is a semi-functional football team. They shouldn't have lost to Vanderbilt.

Like I'm not trying to excuse it, but the team that they lost to was not the Vanderbilt team that has been losing 65 to nothing. The spread of the game was 24, I think. So like it was a big spread. It's a shocking upset, but they didn't just lose to a bunch of team, a bunch of players who, you know, duct tape their shoulder pads together. Like they, they are a functional team that can win games. Yeah. Well, and to Pauly Walnuts in the chat said this is not a quality loss no it's not a

quality loss it's a bad loss nobody's saying that nobody's saying that who said that yeah it is well i think he's saying i said that but it's because they're saying i'm trying to spin it over here i'm just trying to figure out who's spinning what like what do you i get this chat gets in my head sometimes man i don't know it just well no it's a we're just trying to contextualize the loss what but you're gonna it really depends on where you're coming from because you've got the sec is overrated crowd that will hold this up as proof that bama was overranked like all the sec teams should drop like ohio state should be number one which is fine i imagine ohio state will be number one tomorrow so So that's fine.

Maybe Texas, but. I mean, it'd be either Texas, Tennessee, probably because of the wins. Again, later discussion. But like, I don't know how to rank Alabama and Georgia. It's like you put Alabama behind the team that they just beat because they lost to a team that they, like, you could put yourself in a

mind meld there but um you know can i can we actually spin this to alabama though for a second and yeah let's talk alabama so when chris vanini told me this but i went and looked it up to after to confirm but and i thought i remembered this from when they lost to tex&M in 2021, that broke Nick Saban's streak of 100 consecutive wins against unranked opponents. And we have spent a lot of time, obviously speaking, because Kalen DeBoer did just replace him, talking about how good of a job Kalen DeBoer has done and will continue to do in a very impossible situation, right? Like who signs up to go replace Saban?

I don't know. He did. I cannot imagine that Alabama fans who have not really had a taste of this, because even when they lost to A&M, it was on the road, and A&M was still like a fringe top 25 team. Like when's the last time an Alabama fan had a taste of losing a game like this? It's been over a decade, I'm assuming. Louisiana Monroe in 2007. It was Louisiana Monroe in 2007. That was the last time. Because this is Vanderbilt.

Look, I just said this is the best version of Vanderbilt we've seen probably since James Franklin was Vanderbilt's coach. It doesn't matter. You don't lose to Vanderbilt if you're Alabama. You you don't lose to vanderbilt if you're alabama you just don't yeah yeah uh so how do you feel this is gonna go for him for kaylin abor yeah he's gonna be pretty miserable i mean he's probably got for sale signs in his yard already but that's just how it goes i mean fine bomb's gonna be electric on Monday. SEC shorts is going to be incredible. I mean, come on. I tweeted it during the game, the, the SEC shorts Vanderbilt from the first week of the season after they beat Virginia tech, like, how are they ever going to top that?

They have to find a way this has this whole episode has to be about Vandy I mean but for Kalen to bore I mean you you just have to bounce back and keep winning and make the playoff but look if you can lose to Vandy who else on your schedule can you lose to you can lose to just about anybody yeah but like there is a little bit of and this is a different situation because Marcus Freeman is so young in his coaching career, has been a head coach. But if you put on tape and on paper that you're capable of losing, not just to Vanderbilt, to a team like this, that is a very uncomfortable feeling for an Alabama fan base that has been so accustomed to the greatest coach of all time, which is an automatic win anytime you're facing anybody that's a 10-point favorite or more.

You know what I mean? This is uncharted territory. And for it to happen one week after we fell in love with what he did against Georgia, it's just a weird place to be of like, how do you feel about this? And again, maybe in six weeks when this loss doesn't matter and they haven't lost again, it's not a big deal. But in the time being, it's a monumental loss.

It's monumental. I believe Kate in the chat says his best. Ah, Alabama lost. That is what most people are thinking, because most people are used to Alabama just crushing everyone. And so they're happy when Alabama loses at all. But the idea of Alabama losing to Vandy is just incredible. And look, I'm not breaking any news here, but let's say it. So now we understand it.

Kalen DeBoer is not Nick Saban. Now we know that. A great game plan against Georgia. That was a great win. He did a great job at Washington last year. Took them to the national title game. The odds of the person who replaced Nick Saban, and this is not a criticism of Kalen DeBoer specifically.

This is probability, sheer probability, that whoever replaced Nick Saban was going to be anywhere close to as good as Nick Saban was highly unlikely. There just probably isn't a human out there who can do that right now, except maybe Kirby Smart. And he's already got a job and he just lost Caelan Board. So that's the thing. It's the hard, cold reminder that we were ready to say, oh, it's not so bad. They lost the greatest of all time.

They're going to be just fine. And maybe they are going to be just fine. But it's not going to be the same. There are not going to be those days anymore where there is no shot you can lose. Because Nick Saban always won these games. And usually they were never close. Yeah. And, you know, I think when you go and you look at most of the most successful coaches, uh, at powerhouse programs, you know, avoiding these types of losses is a main bullet point for them, right? When the games you're supposed to relentlessly over and over and over again without fail.

Like that is a lot of what makes up your coaching record. Now, the ones that go from like I think James Franklin is the perfect example of somebody who pumps into my head. He usually wins the games he's supposed to. Now, if you don't win the games you you have to the big games then dude that's not enough but you can't be truly a lead if you don't get that first part down so you know it's so early in his career i feel like i would be taking his his coaching career at alabama not his coaching career overall but i don't know how to fully digest this in terms of we had the best possible outcome that you could possibly have as Alabama's head coach seven days ago. And is this the worst possible outcome on their schedule that they could have had?

I mean, I guess maybe losing UC USF or something maybe would have been worse. I don't know. Well, Saban almost lost to USF last year. So here's the thing, too, Andy. It's like it wasn't even it wasn't they got physically beaten like it was like physical. It wasn't like

a bunch of trick plays and weird turnovers. And, you know, I guess there was one weird pick six at the beginning of the game where bounced off someone's helmet and flew up into the air. But Troy and Troy in the chat says no Nick Saban hasn't always won these games. We lost to Georgia Southern. You didn't lose to Georgiaorgia southern nick saban got real mad but you won the game lost to old miss yeah those old miss teams had tons of nfl players all over them lost to

texas a&m that texas a&m team you had tons of nfl players this is different this is more like louisiana monroe not exactly because it's an sec team and diego pavia we've seen him in action the dude played for new mexico state last year and went to auburn in 131 10 he's different he's built different for sure for sure um chris calla chris callahan had a great comment in the chat this is the the perfect year for the 12-team playoff. The playoff is going to be so much fun. An 8-10 seed could win it all. And maybe a day ago, I would have been like, no way. Now?

Because Alabama's – I'm betting you Alabama's still going to be a team that either gets a bye or has a home game in the playoff. Yeah. They just lost to Vandy. Listen, this whole day has been kind of an everybody sucks day, right? Like the Ohio State game, they were winning 7-0 at halftime. They ended up pulling away. That turned out okay.

Georgia struggled at times with Auburn. That turned out okay. Tennessee is losing to Arkansas in the middle of the first quarter as we speak right now, which could be another grab ass central situation um you know in terms of what we thought we knew coming into the weekend was that alabama is king shit in the sport right like you beat georgia at home the way they did for three quarters we thought we knew that we thought that was tangible you know what i mean like as we are out here andy every single week trying to find context to explain away the results that we're getting the one thing that we could hold in our fists and feel real good about was that alabama was legit and alabama was probably

the favorite to win the national championship we got that for seven freaking days and now what we're back to what like i've got i've got it i got it we're back to what? Like, I've got to – We're back to a very exciting football season where we do not know who's going to win the national championship. But we – We don't even know who's going to make the playoff. Can I just say, like, maybe we just don't know anything about anything? Like, I just don't – Yes.

What can you look me in the eyes right now and just be like, Ari, this is a fact. Ari, Ari, Ari, Ari. Only God knows who's going to win the national championship. Yeah. I don't know that God's, I don't know that God saw that one. You know what I mean? Diego Pavia had a hint.

Somebody told Diego Pavia. Yeah. Oh boy. By the way, we're saying this like A&M beat Missouri 41 to 10 today. Like this, this is, there's all of this you just mentioned a bunch of potential results that are happening like there's a lot going on and this could be a year like could it be a 2007 type year except the difference is there's a 12 team playoff at the end of it is that possible no just be uh that would be a vortex of craziness for sure um andy okay let me ask you this because i'm actually

gonna use you uh and cheat a little bit but i do feel like i'm going to write something here if you were at that game and you were covering that game let's workshop this like what so like my thought is i'm going to write a story of confusion about how to feel about the beginning of the calum de boer era like that's how i thought i was going to write but like if you were there and you were writing a column like what do you think the main you know takeaway is you got to write alabama because that's what everybody wants to read. But you can write Vandy in that, too. You can weave Vandy in there. Yeah, I want to know how Clark Lee did this. I really want to know because you and I both know Barton Simmons well.

They're director of personnel. And we've talked about this a bunch on the show where they had a plan that was actually a very good plan that the change in the transfer rules just blew to hell. Essentially, they became the farm system for every team in the SEC because if you prove that you can play in the SEC at Vanderbilt, everybody wants you. So they've just been getting strip-bind since the transfer rules changed. So they go get New Mexico State's quarterback. They get Jerry Kill, who had been New Mexico State's coach as a consultant.

I mean, who would have thought that would create this how did they do this I mean it's probably a combination of a few things right uh right place right time uh important playmaker that just got bowling ball stones at quarterback for Vandy. Alabama coming off of a week that was probably draining and emotional for them. First year head coach game on the road. I don't know. There's that famous Nick Saban quote too. Didn't he say everywhere you go in the SEC is tough except Vanderbilt.

You have more fans there than them. It's not like a Nick Saban quote. He said that a few weeks ago, right? Yeah, I think I recently heard him say that. The revenge has been exacted. Yeah. Never say that. You do have to write Bama, and I will, but what is the hook of the Alabama thought?

The hook of the Alabama thought is Alabama looked as mortal as it's ever looked because what we are used to seeing when Alabama goes down like that. And when it was 2321, we were sure it was going to happen is that Alabama just comes back and the other team wilts eventually and just can't go blow for blow. Now, if it's a Georgia or if it's one of those, you know, Trevor Lawrence or Deshaun Watson, Clemson teams, that's different. They can go blow for blow because they have the same level of talent. But I'm talking about the other teams that don't have the level of talent. They always wilted.

This one never did. This is the first time we've seen in a long time a team that was playing against Alabama that had not equal talent because even those Ole Miss teams, again, tons of NFL talent all over the field. Vandy's got some NFL players, but not like that. They just kept coming. And Alabama wilted because look at how Vandy did it. They had a couple big throws, but they were running up the middle.

Like they were just playing bully ball against Alabama and it was working out here, tossing the rock on second down while you're trying to clock the game away. Like there was just never a flinch from the other team. And I feel like it kind of reminds me of, you know, in football and like, I don't know anything about golf, but when I was growing up, my dad said this once and it always like stuck with me because I think it's true. But like when Tiger Woods was at the peak of who he was as a golfer he would be in final rounds with people and you know down up even whatever a stroke right and a lot of times he would end up winning

tournaments because the people around him would falter as a result of being intimidated by being in that position with Tiger. And I do think that there is some parallel to football in the sense that if you're in a fourth quarter game with the team that's got the athletes that Alabama has and the Crimson Helmets and everything that they have done, there is a psychological trigger that I think goes off in your brain that causes you to make a mistake or to not rise up to the occasion. In fact, you even see it in fans. When you're talking about the game,

I was tweeting with 10 minutes left in the game. Oh my God, Vanderbilt's actually going to do this. And all the replies for the most part are either. Cause they'll blow it. Don't worry. Their time's coming. They're going to lose. They're going to lose.

And like, I think that we expect that. My question is this, Ari. Did they not do that because this isn't Nick Saban's Alabama or because they are a different version of Andy or a little bit of both? See, now that right there I think is it right there, what you just said. Exploring that thought process because i think that it's probably a combination of both um you know but we want it to fit into one little box like that we want it to we want to be able to very easily say it's because kaylin deborah is not nick saban but the fact of

the matter is kaylin deborah just beat kirby smart just beat a team loaded with nfl talent just beat a team that is very representative of what you will see in the college football playoff. So we know he can beat that kind of team. But now we also know he can lose to this kind of team. And they legitimately didn't just go win like 22 to 17 in a weird game. They dropped 40 on them. Like they scored 40 points.

Like this is a lot of points. So, yeah, I have to brainstorm that. I know that you're really busy tonight, but I might bother you in the middle of the game if you have the minute. By all means. And this is going to be one of these 5 a.m. nights. I already know it because I can't even begin to think about rankings or bubble or anything until the dust settles.

We're out here. We've also got a lot of very late games as well andy let's not forget that brock glenn just threw a 15 yard touchdown pass what the hell's going on he did but they're down clemson's up 17 to 7 and glimpses the ball again so it's not let's not go crazy florida state's throwing touchdown passes against clemson right now okay so yeah you're gonna act like that's that? Our pet's heads are falling off over here. Listen, Ari, what did we say? There are no bad college football weekends.

It's always these weekends. It is always these weekends. We said, oh, October 12th, October 12th, October 12th. That's Oregon, Ohio State. That's Texas, Oklahoma. That's Ole Miss, LSU. That's Penn State, USC. That's the day that everything comes together. No no it's when you don't see it coming it's this weekend it's when Alabama goes to a construction site

of a stadium and gets 40 dropped on them that's why we love this sport that's what makes it so amazing it's banana land banana land but I love it. I love it. It's good. It's going to be great. And you know what, man, for somebody who, uh, you know, has always been the last few years, a little bit,

not in love with the 12 team thing. Uh, if we do get an Oh seven type year, the 12 team playoff is mighty appropriate for that. So, um, you know, Hey,

listen, we don't know what's going to, what's going to happen. We might have one or two teams at the end of the year that look a lot better or above what everybody else is. But if Georgia is not Georgia, here's my main thought on this. And Alabama's not Alabama, and Ohio State turns out to not be Ohio State, and you go into that playoff with a bunch of wounded soldiers

when they're supposed to be the big dogs of the sport that would be something because you know you already have two teams in that bucket that have a loss and ohio state very well may could have a loss a week from now so like yeah i mean here's the thing like it is entirely possible that ohio state ascends to number one today i think it's maybe texas but i think it might split and how crazy would it be if ohio state goes to number one and they go to eugene and lose next week because what i saw last night and eugene from oregon once they finally got the grab ass out of their system the friday night grab ass they got it out of the system after about a quarter and a half what i saw from oregon is a

team that could beat ohio state so we may see number one go down again. Well, listen, buddy, if Tennessee loses tonight, I'm just not going to show up. What are we going to be? Actually, I will show up. It's going to be great. Oh, you're going to show up. We are on the verge of a pretty hectic evening, too. So, you know, I do think that, you know, we do these videos. We do the instant reaction shows that this one goes for a

lot longer than they usually do because it's such a monumental thing but we're gonna have to cover this again like we can't not talk about this on the actual show this will be a good um workshop so that we have our our brains more sharp when we talk about it later on for the final product of the thing that people listen to at the end of the day but like i, I feel like it's 715. I haven't written a word since noon and I don't even know where to begin right now. Join us at 1130 p.m. Eastern Time tonight,

live again on the On3Sports YouTube channel. We're going to do this again. We're going to talk about everything that happened today, not just Alabama Vanderbilt, not just Texas A&M Missouri, because we've already talked

about that quite a bit. But we are going to talk about those things in the grand scheme. And we're also going to talk about all the other things that happen because this is one of those days you don't see coming and when they do come it is a beautiful beautiful thing best sport in the world and it just keeps getting better talk to you