Nashville got the kind of ending that turns a routine September game into a highlight that lives forever. Vanderbilt trailed 17-0, stared down a late deficit, and somehow walked off NC State 31-28 in one of the wildest finishes college football has seen in years.
The game looked settled with six seconds left. NC State had the ball at its own 5-yard line, facing fourth-and-7, and all it needed to do was let the clock expire.
CJ Bailey had already put together a strong day, throwing for 264 yards and three touchdowns, and the safe path was obvious. Coach Dave Doeren said after the game that taking a knee and eating the safety was the plan.
Instead, the moment unraveled.
Bailey rolled to his right in the end zone, hesitated, and got caught in a disastrous split-second decision. Defensive end Miles Capers, who started his college career with Vanderbilt in 2021 during Clark Lea’s first season, knocked the ball loose. Cornerback Cayden Daniels fell on it for a touchdown, flipping the game on its head.
Officials then added one second back onto the clock, which only made the whole scene even stranger. Vanderbilt converted the extra point, kicked off, and gave NC State one last shot. Bailey found wide receiver Keenan Jackson on a short pass, but the laterals that followed ended with Commodores cornerback Jordan Matthews recovering a fumble to seal it.
The result pushed Vanderbilt to 3-0 and set up a trip to Auburn next. NC State heads home to face Appalachian State.
The finish drew immediate comparisons to Michigan’s 13-12 win over Western Michigan on Sept. 5, though this one belonged to NC State’s own miscue. ESPN said it was just the second time in the last 20 years that a team leading with the ball in the final 10 seconds ended up losing. The other example also involved Michigan, in its infamous muffed punt against Michigan State in 2015.
Clock-management nightmares have a way of haunting coaches, and Doeren joined a list that already includes ex-Baylor coach Kevin Steele and Miami coach Mario Cristobal. In 1999, Steele chose to run the ball deep in UNLV territory instead of kneeling out a 24-21 win, and Darrell Bush fumbled before Rebels defensive back Kevin Thomas returned it for a touchdown. In 2023, Miami fumbled in a similar spot, and Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King delivered a go-ahead 44-yard touchdown pass with two seconds left.
For NC State, the fact that Bailey was supposed to go down will not make this easier to stomach. The Wolfpack had a chance to bounce back from a blowout loss to Virginia in the opener and instead walked straight into a finish that will be replayed for years.
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 🡒]