Vanderbilt has its first lead over Alabama in nearly 2 decades.

The Commodores broke a score-less tie on Saturday afternoon in Nashville with a 7-yard touchdown run by Sedrick Alexander.

That’s a momentous touchdown for the Commodores. It’s given them their first lead over Alabama since they led 10-3 at the half against the Crimson Tide all the way back in 2006 — the year before Nick Saban took over as Alabama’s head coach. Alabama went on to win that game 13-10.

It’s also the first time Vanderbilt has scored a touchdown of any kind against the Tide since 2007. In the last 3 meetings in this series, which took place in 2011, 2017 and 2022, Alabama out-scored Vandy by a combined score of 148-3.

A few plays after Alexander’s touchdown, Vanderbilt took a 13-0 lead over Alabama thanks to a pick-6 (followed by a missed extra point). It marks the first time Vanderbilt has held a multi-score lead over Alabama since at least 1999 — and possibly further back.

It’s an unfortunate start to the day for Kalen DeBoer, who certainly wasn’t looking to make this kind of Alabama football history on Saturday.

Vanderbilt has not defeated Alabama since 1984. Excluding vacated wins and forfeits, the Crimson Tide have won 21 consecutive games in this series.