Whenever an upset like Saturday’s in Nashville occurs, it’s natural to wonder how well the losing team practiced and prepared.
But that doesn’t seem to be the reason for Alabama’s No. 1 football team’s 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt. If you ask the players, that’s not the case. In fact, quite the opposite.
“We’re ready for a great week,” guard Tyler Booker said. “They just made more plays than we did. We can’t leave it up to them to make more plays.”
Linebacker Deonte Lawson said the energy was high at Alabama and the players were competing in practice.
“I was ready,” Lawson said.
But Vanderbilt was ready for more. The Commodores scored on their first drive and then returned a pick-six for a touchdown on the first drive Alabama attacked.
Even though University of Alabama coach Karen DeBoer felt positive energy all week, the Crimson Tide’s good preparation didn’t come through.
“I really think our players prepared hard,” DeBoer said.
The Crimson Tide even anticipated the trap game nature of this matchup. Some staffers even placed mousetraps around the Alabama facility last week.
However, the message didn’t seem to resonate.
“We were just chewing on cheese,” linebacker Que Robinson said. “We lost to Vandy. They came out firing. We got it back a little bit late heading into the second quarter. They just came out hot.”
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.
