Greg McElroy is more than qualified to pick who he thinks will win Saturday’s matchup between Alabama and Vanderbilt in Nashville.
After all, the former Crimson Tide quarterback lived the rivalry while directing Nick Saban‘s offense back in the day. He’s matched up against the Commodores wearing crimson and white, and now all these years later as a college football analyst he provided his take on the Week 11 matchup on his Always College Football podcast earlier this week.
This is an intriguing SEC matchup between a team in Alabama trying to get somewhere really big — the College Football Playoff — against a team in Vanderbilt trying to make its season by handing the Crimson Tide what would be a crushing third loss of the season. Bama (7-2 overall, 5-2 SEC) has won 2 in a row, so it has things in order going into the Music City, but it also still has those 2 losses on its ledger, which means there is little to zero margin for error for the Tide as it heads on the road.
Meanwhile, Vandy is going through its growing pains in the first season of the post-Diego Pavia era, and wins have been hard to come by in the SEC as the Commodores sit at just 1-5 in the league and 4-5 overall. Can Vandy summon the energy and pride, rise up and take down Alabama? It did that just 2 years ago in the same stadium as Saturday’s game will be played in, but those were different teams, and it especially was a different Vanderbilt team.
Bama was No. 1 that day in 2024, and it left Nashville with a bit, fat loss. McElroy doesn’t see that gruesome Alabama history repeating itself on Saturday as the teams collide at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
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“I’m taking Alabama to win the game, 38-17,” McElroy said. “I think they’ll cover that (betting) number of 17.5 (points). Vanderbilt’s splits gives them a puncher’s chance, but Alabama’s quarterback (Keelon Russell) has been punching back with 40-yard passes all season.”
McElroy believes for Vandy to have any shot, it must shorten the game, meaning less possessions and less opportunities for Alabama to crank up its high-octane offense.
“Alabama finishes drives, and Vanderbilt gives away possessions,” added McElroy, who’s not buying into any nonsense going down on Saturday afternoon in the form of another shocking upset in the Music City.
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.
