Nick Saban went on the Pat McAfee Show on Sept. 20 and said the only venue in the SEC that was not hard to play in as a visitor was Vanderbilt. “When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have,” the former Tide head coach said.

Fifteen days later, Saban’s old program went on the road to face Vanderbilt and lost 40-35. Days after beating Georgia at home to ascend to the No. 1 team in the country. Days after being penciled in as a lock for the College Football Playoff. Days after answering the doubters of the Kalen DeBoer regime, Alabama tripped and landed smack on its face in Nashville.

And now Saban has egg on his face.

Scenes inside FirstBank Stadium were electric when the game went final. Fans stormed the field. The goalposts were torn down. And the backdrop to the pandemonium? Saban’s comments.

The Crimson Tide did not lose to Vanderbilt at any point during Nick Saban’s tenure. The Commodores scored just 3 combined points in their final 3 games against the coach. Vandy was 0-10 all-time against AP No. 1 teams and 0-60 in program history against AP top 5 teams.

But that’s all ancient history now. Now, the Crimson Tide are left reeling a bit. While Saturday’s defeat was their first loss of the season and it probably won’t disqualify them from the College Football Playoff, an extensive autopsy should be done to figure out what has gone wrong in the last 6 quarters of play.

Alabama’s defense was repeatedly gashed in the second half against Georgia, and it could not produce stops at any point on Saturday against Vanderbilt. The ‘Dores scored on 6 of their 8 possessions before a 7-play drive that killed off the clock at the end of the game.