Vanderbilt’s start was a mess, its comeback was relentless, and the finish was pure chaos.
Down 31-28 late in the fourth quarter after a night of repeated self-inflicted wounds, the Commodores somehow walked out with a 35-31 win over NC State in Nashville thanks to a last-second miracle. With six seconds left and NC State pinned near its own goal line, Bailey took the snap and scrambled in the end zone before Vanderbilt EDGE Miles Capers punched the ball loose. Cornerback Cayden Daniels fell on it for the winning touchdown with one second remaining.
The game had looked ugly for Vanderbilt almost immediately. NC State opened with a seven-play, 82-yard touchdown drive to go up 7-0, and backup quarterback Will Wilson finished it off after slipping through a missed tackle and finding space to the right for the score. The Wolfpack kept pressing after a punt return set them up at their own 46-yard line, then turned that into another touchdown drive and a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
Vanderbilt’s mistakes kept piling up. After Jared Curtis fumbled in NC State territory, the Wolfpack cashed in again with a 12-play drive that ended in a field goal and pushed the deficit to 17-0 in the first half.
But the Commodores finally steadied themselves before halftime. Even after a 10-yard holding penalty backed them into a 2nd-and-20, Curtis led a drive that ended with his touchdown pass to Junior Sherrill for Vanderbilt’s first points of the game.
The second half brought more trouble before the comeback really took shape. Vanderbilt got the ball to start but couldn’t make it count, and NC State stretched the lead to 24-7 midway through the third quarter on a Bailey touchdown pass to a receiver open on a slant in the end zone.
Vanderbilt answered quickly. Curtis hit Tristen Brown for 33 yards, and MK Young finished the drive with a 7-yard touchdown to cut the margin to 10.
The fight didn’t stop there. Curtis later found Sedrick Alexander wide open for another score to make it 24-21, only for NC State to respond with another Bailey touchdown pass.
Still, Vanderbilt kept coming. On its next possession, Curtis marched the Commodores downfield and delivered a sharp throw to Sherrill for his second touchdown of the day, trimming the score to 31-28 with 6:18 left.
Then came the crushing mistake that looked like it might end the rally. With two minutes remaining and Vanderbilt deep enough in field goal range to tie or take the lead, Curtis threw an interception, handing the ball back to NC State and seemingly shutting the door.
It wasn’t over. Not even close.
Vanderbilt improved to 3-0 with the win and will head to Auburn next week to begin SEC play.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Just Got The Kind Of SEC Shoutout Fans Never Expected
The SEC Nation crew had plenty to discuss during Auburns primetime meeting with Florida at Jordan-Hare Stadium, especially with the Gators making their first trip there since 2011 and new coach Jon Sumrall getting his first SEC test. But the broadcast briefly took a turn Vanderbilt fans probably never expected, when former quarterback Chase Daniel brought the Commodores into the conversation while laying out a possible path for Florida.
Tim Tebow pushed back right away, and Daniel quickly clarified he meant Vanderbilts surprising 10-win season last year, not some low-end comparison. The exchange stayed light, with the panel laughing it off, but it was still the kind of offhand shoutout that says plenty about how far Vanderbilt has come and how noticeable that rise has become around the league. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Stunned NC State With A Finish Nobody Saw Coming
For much of the night, Vanderbilt was chasing NC State, waiting for a break that never seemed to arrive. The Commodores had to fight through a late deficit before the game turned on a sequence no one in the stadium likely expected, and the result pushed Vanderbilt to 3-0 while sending NC State to 1-2.
C.J. Baileys late decision to try for an intentional safety turned into a fumble that Vanderbilt recovered, and the Commodores made it count by taking the lead for good in a 35-31 finish. NC State coach Dave Doeren later explained what the play was supposed to be and made no secret of how costly the loss felt, but for Vanderbilt the bigger story was simple: a game that looked close to gone was suddenly theirs. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Just Pulled Off A Finish College Football Rarely Sees
NC State had the game in hand, the ball and the lead with the clock bleeding down, and still walked out of Vanderbilt with a loss after a fumble recovery in the end zone with six seconds left. For the Commodores, it was the kind of finish college football almost never delivers, one that turned a tight game into an upset before the Wolfpack could even absorb what happened.
The rarity of it only sharpens the backdrop. In the last 20 years, it has happened just once before under similar circumstances, when Michigan fell to Michigan State in 2015. For NC State, the defeat left it at 1-2, while Vanderbilt got a win it will be talking about for a long time, even if the play itself will be replayed and argued over for even longer. [Read more 🡒]