5 things Alabama must do to get some payback against Vanderbilt
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The Cumberland River in Nashville presents residents and visitors alike with a plethora of fun things to do when they visit the historic Music City.
The beautiful body of water that runs through Nashville offers paddleboarding, kayaking, fishing and cruising, among other enticing activities. What isn’t listed among those things to do along and in the Cumberland? Well, that would be what delirious Vanderbilt football fans did almost exactly a year ago after toppling Alabama when they threw the goalposts into the river.
And you can trust that nobody has forgotten on either side of this suddenly burgeoning football rivalry between programs that nobody would ever dream of becoming rivals. But right now, in early October 2025, this is a boiling, relevant rivalry between ranked teams who want a piece of each other again this Saturday afternoon.
For 16th-ranked Vandy, it wants to prove that last season’s titanic upset of the top-ranked Tide in Nashville wasn’t some dream, right down to those crazed, euphoric fans tossing the goalposts into the Cumberland. For 10th-ranked Bama, it wants to restore some balance in the SEC pecking order, it wants to keep injecting new life into those renewed College Football Playoff hopes and, even if some in Tuscaloosa wouldn’t bring themselves to admit it, it definitely wants some payback.
How exactly can the Crimson Tide make that happen in Week 6? Here are 5 things they must do:
1. That MIA running game finally has to show up — right?
How much longer can Alabama really survive with such a feeble running attack as it begins the long and arduous SEC gauntlet? For the Tide to have any sustained success as they attempt to navigate October and November, the answer to that question has to be not much longer, doesn’t it?
Through 4 games, the numbers on the ground look gruesome. Alabama, which has devoured defenses with its high-octane rushing attack for seemingly decades, is averaging just 3.9 yards per carry as a team. That’s hard to believe, and so is the fact that the Crimson Tide’s leading rusher a third of the way through the regular season has just 150 yards.
That leading rusher is freshman Kevin Riley, the only Bama player to crack the 100-yard mark — for the season, not a single game. The Tide’s second-leading rusher is another freshman, AK Dear, who has all of 85 yards and has carried the ball just 7 times in 2025. Riley and Dear can’t be burdened with the blame for this because they are, after all, just freshmen and weren’t supposed to shoulder the rushing load this fall.
Jam Miller was. Unfortunately, the senior who rushed for 668 yards and 7 touchdowns last season, who was positioned to really take off in 2025, dislocated his collarbone during a scrimmage in fall camp. Miller missed the first 3 games of the season and failed to make an impact in his 2025 debut last week, with just 46 yards on 16 carries.
Logic screams that Bama needs to get its running game off the ground very soon, like on Saturday, because success on the ground keeps Diego Pavia on the sideline.
2. Ryan Williams and Co. need to show Vandy some respect
Sometimes, words spoken in the heat of the spring or summer are just bluster from college players anxious to get back on the field in the fall. But other times, saucy soundbites during the offseason have staying power and can be taken seriously. So, where does that leave what Alabama star wideout Ryan Williams said to Jon Gruden during a film session in early June?
That film session was on film for everybody to see and hear, too. When Gruden asked Williams, point blank, what he would say to his teammates about this year’s Bama-Vandy game, the phenom who had just turned 18 less than 4 months earlier smiled, shook his head and said this: “Going into this game, we don’t call them revenge games … we’re going to kill an ant with a sledgehammer this year.”
Williams did compliment the Commodores on their historical upset win just before the ant quote that went viral. So, it’s not as if Williams was oblivious to the fact that Vandy outplayed Alabama and deserved its monumental moment. But, come on. Bama is absolutely a football sledgehammer in historical terms, but right now in Year 2 under Kalen DeBoer the Tide are just trying to recapture that aura of dominance they exuded under Nick Saban.
And, come on. Vanderbilt football might be a bit of an ant in historical terms, but right now the Commodores’ emergence under Clark Lea is one of the biggest stories in college football. The Vandy team that stunned Bama last year did end up winning 7 games, and the Bama team that was No. 1 when it happened did end up losing 4 games, so by season’s end the early October shocker wasn’t nearly as much of a shock.
Fast-forward 12 months, and the Diego Pavia-led Commodores are hardly an ant. They’re 5-0 for the first time since 2008 and ranked 16th as they roll into T-Town. Remember, Alabama was in the exact same position last year, coming off an emotional win over Georgia the week before. Sure, it helps Williams and Co. that they’re at home this time around, but Vandy won’t be scared.
Williams’ early June bravado quickly reached Pavia, who had his own bold response on his social media. Forget the double-digit spread and the heavy lean toward Bama by ESPN’s FPI. That kind of stuff will get the Tide in trouble against the Commodores all over again. To beat Vanderbilt this time around, Alabama must show Vandy the respect it’s earned over the past 12 months.
3. Ty Simpson can’t be upstaged at home by Diego Pavia
Pavia is having a magical season and he’s coming off a masterful performance in a victory over Utah State, when he combined for 400 yards of total offense and accounted for 6 touchdowns. Pavia has already thrown for 1,211 yards with 13 TDs and just 3 interceptions, and he’s rushed for 294 yards and 2 scores. He can beat defenses in multiple ways, and he did just that in last season’s stunner over Bama.
That brings us to Simpson, who has responded with a vengeance in his first season as the Tide’s starting QB after that season-opening disaster at Florida State. After waiting for so long to get his shot, Simpson has to believe this is his time, and on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET when the game kicks off on ABC, it will be at Simpson’s stadium, not Pavia’s.
That means Simpson has to make a stand and say, in effect, “not in my house” to Pavia. So far, the Simpson-led Alabama offense has yet to turn the ball over even once this season. That’s pretty amazing, but to keep Pavia and that dangerous Vanderbilt offense on the sideline, Simpson’s efficiency has to continue. This doesn’t mean Simpson has to necessarily match Pavia number for number, it just means he’s got to dictate the pace of the game with the accuracy and decision-making he’s shown so far.
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4. Avoid human nature and that classic emotional letdown
Here we are again, 1 year later. On Oct. 5, 2024, Alabama had just slayed Georgia in that thriller in T-Town, and it wasn’t ready for what Vandy had in store. Yes, it was a classic performance by a program short on them, but it was also a classic letdown by an unprepared team with a first-year head coach.
Kalen DeBoer’s Crimson Tide were ripe for that upset a year ago. A year later, almost to the day, DeBoer must show that this team is above that, that it can handle the success from another win over Georgia and take another step forward the following week.
We’re still not even sure exactly what this Alabama team is yet. But it’s pretty safe to say right now that this Vanderbilt team is better than the one that took down Bama 12 months ago. That fact alone should get the Tide’s attention, and if they pay attention to detail enough on Saturday and show some real maturity, they’re likely to defeat human nature and avoid that emotional letdown.
5. Win time of possession and keep Vandy’s offense off the field
Last season, Vanderbilt had the ball for a staggering 42 minutes and 8 seconds against Alabama. It’s amazing in itself the Tide only lost that day by 5 points after possessing the ball for under 18 minutes.
If anything, that should give this Bama team some real belief (and motivation) going into Saturday, and so should this — the Crimson Tide possessed the ball for 35 minutes and 36 seconds last week at Georgia.
DeBoer’s team just performed a classic keep-away in hostile territory. If the Tide can do it again in the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium and change that absurd time of possession script from 12 months ago, then their path to payback will be so much smoother.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
