Vanderbilt stuns No. 1 Alabama behind gritty effort from QB Diego Pavia

The Vanderbilt Commodores scored the biggest win in program history on Saturday, upsetting No. 1 ranked Alabama by a 40-35 margin.

Vanderbilt led from wire-to-wire, scoring 13 points in the first eight minutes of the game, including a pick-six from Randon Fontenette. While Alabama was able to crawl back into the game and inch closer at times, it was never able to get the lead and simply made too many mistakes throughout the game to catch up.

It also did not have an answer for Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia who led his team with a gritty, gutsy effort that included some huge plays with the game on the line.

One of his biggest plays was this 36-yard touchdown pass to Junior Sherrill on a 4th-and-1 play to give the Commodores a 30-21 lead late in the third quarter.

After Alabama closed the gap again on an absurd Ryan Williams touchdown just before the end of the third quarter, Vanderbilt was able to get more insurance with another Pavia touchdown pass with just over five minutes remaining in regulation.

Pavia then sealed the game via a first-down run with a minute and change remaining in the fourth quarter.

Overall, there was nothing flashy about Pavia's overall numbers. He completed 16-of-20 passes for 252 yards and rushed for 56 yards on 20 attempts. In a normal game, you might not give those numbers a second thought. But he contributed two touchdowns, did not turn the football over and made some absolutely massive plays when Vanderbilt needed them most. It produced the biggest win ever for the program.

As for Alabama, it is not going to take new head coach Kalen DeBoer long to find out what pressure truly is. You could lose a big game at Washington and not face too much heat as long as you keep producing highly competitive 10-or 11-win seasons while competing for the conference title. That does not fly at Alabama, where national championships are the only expectation. Losing to Vanderbilt as the No. 1 team in the country is not going to be well-received by anybody.