Alabama is heading back to Nashville this week, but the Crimson Tide aren’t spending much time revisiting the last trip there.
That’s the trip that ended with Vanderbilt stunning top-ranked Alabama 40-35 in 2024. This time around, the players available to the media said that result isn’t driving the conversation inside the program.
“It’s not really talked about much,” inside linebacker Caleb Woodson said. “I wasn’t here. We’re just focused on going out and dominating the next game.”
Woodson wasn’t the only one downplaying the idea that the 2024 loss has become a talking point. Tight end Kaleb Edwards said the players who were on that team and experienced the defeat two seasons ago are not bringing it up, and he noted that Alabama has plenty of new faces on this year’s roster.
Center Racin Delgatty and defensive back Dijon Lee Jr. gave the same message. From their side, the focus is on the next game, not the old result in Nashville.
That said, head coach Kalen DeBoer gave a different version of the week’s messaging when he spoke to reporters Monday after Alabama’s win over LSU. DeBoer said he reminded the team about the 2024 Vanderbilt loss.
So which is it? The players say it’s not a major topic.
The head coach said it was part of the message. Either way, Alabama knows what happened the last time it went to Nashville, even if the current group isn’t dwelling on it publicly.
The Crimson Tide did get revenge when Vanderbilt came to Alabama in 2025, winning 30-14 at home. Now Alabama gets another shot against the Commodores in Nashville.
Alabama and Vanderbilt are set for 11:45 a.m. CT on Saturday.
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The messier part is what it means for Tennessee, because the comparison between the two teams is now impossible to ignore. Head-to-head results and strength of schedule both have a way of complicating the conversation, and Alabamas latest win only sharpened the question of how much weight the committee will give each factor. However it shakes out, this is the sort of ranking fight that could linger well beyond Tuesday night. [Read more 🡒]
