Vanderbilt beats Auburn to get wins over both Tigers and Alabama in the same season for the first time since 1955

Vanderbilt can claim football superiority over the state of Alabama.

The Commodores moved to 6-3 with a 17-7 win over Auburn on Saturday. It’s the first time since 1955 that Vanderbilt has beaten both Auburn and Alabama in the same season. Earlier this year, Vanderbilt knocked off then-No. 1 Alabama 40-35 the week after the Crimson Tide beat Georgia.

Saturday’s game was tied 7-7 at halftime before Vanderbilt kicked a field goal to go up 10-7 late in the third quarter. The Commodores extended the lead to two scores with 4:18 to go when Eli Stowers caught a four-yard TD pass from Diego Pavia.

It’s the second straight win for Pavia at Auburn. A season ago, Pavia was the quarterback at New Mexico State when the Aggies blew out the Tigers 31-10 in the penultimate week of the regular season. Two years ago, Pavia led NMSU to a win over Liberty. The Flames coach that season? Auburn’s Hugh Freeze.

Vanderbilt’s win over Alabama was the school’s first over the Crimson Tide since a 30-21 win in 1984. Saturday’s win over Auburn, a team now 1-5 in the SEC, is the first since 2012 when Vanderbilt won 17-13. That was Vanderbilt’s second straight win over the Tigers; a win in 2007 had snapped a 13-game win streak that dated back to Vanderbilt’s 1955 victory.

In the years since those dual wins in 1955 — Vanderbilt beat Alabama 21-6 that season and took down Auburn 25-13, the Commodores had played both the Tigers and Crimson Tide in the same season 12 different times. And in those 24 games, Vanderbilt went just 2-22.

The sixth win of the season for the Commodores means they are going to a bowl game for the first time since 2018. One more win will also guarantee Vanderbilt’s first winning season since 2013, when the team wet 9-4 in James Franklin’s final year in Nashville.