A season ago, Vanderbilt finished 2-10, 0-8 in SEC play, losing conference games by an average of 20.3 points. The closest result was a 31-15 loss to Auburn.
There was no earthly reason to believe that Vanderbilt football would be any different than what Vanderbilt football had always been, or even most of the time, was. Not competitive.
But last offseason, coach Clark Lee brought in 43 new players through high school recruiting and the transfer portal.
On Saturday, the Commodores defeated No. 1 ranked University of Alabama 40-35, improving their season record to 3-2.
It wasn’t just the blood and guts of quarterback Diego Pavia, a transfer from New Mexico State, who threw for 252 yards, two touchdowns and rushed for 57 more. He plays behind three offensive line rookies in Stephen Lozoya (Mississippi State), Stephen Hubbard (UTEP) and Chase Mitchell (Liberty), along with returning senior starters Gunnar Hansen and Delphine Xavier. -Joined Castillo to dominate the Crimson Tide.
Vandy outscored Alabama (418-394) and outscored Alabama (166-84). He also converted 12 of 18 third downs and went 1-on-1 on the fourth. Dominated time of possession (42:08-17:52). There were 75 plays and the Tide had 45 plays.
At least on Saturday, Vanderbilt was better.
This was a new team in a new era of college football. Much has been made about expanding the playoffs to 12 teams, opening up new avenues to the postseason for more teams, but also increasing the chance for powerhouse teams like Alabama to stumble. It also became. Not every loss is a hindrance (not that a team like “Bama” really was).
The bigger development is that we need to be able to withstand more losses because we are likely to see more losses.
College football, at least within the SEC, has yet to match the NFL’s Any Given Sunday mentality, but that doesn’t mean the competitive balance hasn’t flattened in some quarters. .
The sport is more competitive than ever. Many incorrectly predicted that name, image, likeness, and instant eligibility in the transfer portal would help the Alabamas of the world, meaning the rich would get even richer, but the opposite may be true. It turns out.
For years, the blueprint for winning a national championship was to have successive top-five recruiting classes, but only a handful of programs had the means, tradition and geography to pull it off. Just five years ago, there were only three or four legitimate title contenders in an entire season.
On the other hand, for programs like Vanderbilt, building from the basement required years of slow plodding through setbacks. Very few people have achieved that.
Now neither is true. The final two national championship games featured Michigan, Washington, and TCU. Neither of them have realistically competed in decades, but have been strengthened by the addition of the transfer portal and the return of existing talent through the NIL.
Meanwhile, the conference is starting to flatten out, even though it was expanded to include more heavyweight vs. heavyweight matches.
Consider that in past years, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon State could have made it through their respective conferences (Big Ten and Pac-12) unscathed and made the playoffs. Sho. They will now meet in a Big Ten Conference matchup on Saturday in Eugene.
Additionally, there are challenges for all teams that continue week in and week out. Vanderbilt, which had lost 60 straight games to top-five opponents, suddenly found itself a serious contender against Alabama. Perhaps the erstwhile Tide could have just gotten through them and only worried about bigger bumps — like, say, Tennessee in two weeks.
No more.
The Volunteers, previously ranked No. 4, suffered a crushing 19-14 loss to the University of Arkansas on Saturday. After all, the Hogs went just 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the SEC last year. Coach Sam Pittman was firmly in the hot seat. Still, he brought in 40 new players, including 22 transfers, and the rebuilt Arkansas defense largely suppressed the potent Tennessee offense.
Every program costs money. They always are. Up until now, booster cash has been used passively to invest in facilities and pay coaches, with the hope that it will eventually lead to the acquisition of better players. In most cases, they could not win the construction competition.
Now the money will go directly to the players and the talent will go wherever the money is made.
At the same time, the depth of major programs decreases as players deeper on the depth chart go looking for playing time at other schools. Includes groups up to 5 levels. If that happens, the top will also become weaker.
Just one week into October, Texas is the only undefeated team in the SEC. The ACC is led by familiar names like Clemson and Miami, but SMU and Pitt are also in the rankings, with Syracuse showing they’re serious. It seems like just about anyone can win in the Big 12.
The playoffs would pit teams with two losses against teams with three losses, something that once seemed ridiculous. Rest assured, now that schedules are tighter and the differences within the league are smaller, it is inevitable that more “upsets” will occur.
The losers here are some of the Group 5 teams — I’m sure New Mexico State wishes Pavia was still around. But there’s also been an exodus of talent, and there have been a number of upsets and upstarts this year, from Northern Illinois’ Notre Dame to clearly superior Boise State.
This is the beginning of a whole new era for the sport. Not to mention the playoffs, more schools are adopting modern methods of building rosters that allow them to replace their programs almost overnight.
That’s what Clark Lee did last offseason, and on Saturday, Vandy finally beat a top-five team. The biggest surprise was that watching the game, it wasn’t a surprise at all.
