The Alabama Crimson Tide suffered a shocking defeat to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday afternoon in Nashville, losing to Vandy for the first time since 1984 and giving the Commodores their first victory in program history over a top-five opponent.
The loss was not shocking to everyone — at least if you believe Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was telling the truth when he was asked about it after his team defeated Auburn over the weekend.
“Vandy has a great program and does a great job. It’s a lot of other people that don’t respect Vandy. I respect [head coach] Clark Lea, I respect his team, his quarterback, what they’ve done,” Smart said. “Someone told me that six of eight games in our league were decided by one score or less. Nothing shocks me about our league.”
Smart then seemed to issue a message directly to Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer after DeBoer’s team handled Smart’s the previous week.
“Welcome to the SEC. It’s hard every week. And I’ve got a feeling it’s not gonna stop. It’s a consistency in performance, and when you ride the wave of emotion, you get caught on the bottom of the wave sometimes.”
Kirby Smart just asked about @VandyFootball's upset over #1 Alabama. @WRBLSports #Vandy pic.twitter.com/gygz1y2KHr
— Jack Patterson (@JPattersonTV) October 5, 2024
Alabama will have a chance to hopefully get right this week at home against South Carolina. But as Smart said, nothing is guaranteed in the SEC, and Kalen DeBoer may have just learned that lesson the hard way.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
