Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart knows how tough it is to win in the SEC. He saw his 28 game SEC winning streak snapped last week against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Smart notes that you’re always a week away from being humbled in the SEC and that was the case for Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer, who got his first career SEC win last week against Georgia, had his SEC winning streak snapped at one game.
“I think Vandy’s got a great program and does a great job. I mean, it’s a lot of other people that don’t respect Vandy,” said Kirby Smart.
Of course, Kirby Smart’s old boss, Nick Saban, may be one of those who does not respect Vanderbilt. “The only place you play in the SEC that is not hard to play is Vanderbilt,” said Saban a few weeks ago.
Saban went 4-0 in his career against Vanderbilt. In 2007, he did have a 24-10 win over the Commodores which was close, but he Saban and the Crimson Tide outscored Vanderbilt by an average score of 49.3 to 1.0 over Saban’s last three games against the Commodores.
The tables turned quickly on Alabama, who has found it very hard to stop anything over the past three halves. Alabama has allowed 67 points over its last six quarters of play.
Vanderbilt played Nick Saban’s quote on its video board shortly after upsetting Alabama.
“I respect Clark Lea,” continued Kirby Smart. “I respect his team, his quarterback, what they’ve done. They beat Virginia Tech. I mean, somebody told me that six of eight games were decided by one score or less in our league. Nothing shocks me about our league.”
The Vanderbilt Commodores pulled off an amazing 40-35 upset of No. 2 Alabama behind a dominant offensive performance. Vanderbilt gained 418 total yards against Alabama and could not be stopped in the second half. The Commodores went 12 of 18 on third down and held the ball for over 42 minutes of possession. Vanderbilt also got a huge pick six from its defense to aid their upset hopes.
