Game 6: RV/RV Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 SEC) at RV/RV Kentucky (3-2, 1-2 SEC)
When: Saturday, Oct. 12 • 6:45 p.m. CT
Where: Kroger Field • Lexington, Ky.
Watch: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and Cole Cubelic)
Listen: 94.9 The Fan (Andrew Allegretta, Norman Jordan and Kevin Ingram)
NEXT UP
• Vanderbilt goes on the road to the Bluegrass State to take on Kentucky at Kroger Field on Saturday with the action airing on SEC Network.
• With Kentucky grabbing a win at Ole Miss on Sept. 28, both teams enter Saturday’s contest with victories in their last action.
• Both Vanderbilt and Kentucky are receiving votes in both polls this week. Vandy received 26 votes in the AP Top 25 (Kentucky – 1) and four votes in the US LBM Coaches Poll (Kentucky – 12).
• Vanderbilt trails Kentucky 49-43-4 in the all-time series since 1896. The visiting team has won each of the last two meetings with the Dores beating the Wildcats 24-21 in Lexington in 2022.
LAST TIME OUT
• Saturday’s 40-35 win over top-ranked Alabama at FirstBank Stadium was Vanderbilt’s first victory over a No. 1-ranked team, and the first top-five win in program history.
• The Commodores were 0-60 against AP top-five opponents entering the contest with No. 1/2-ranked Alabama and it was Vandy’s first win over Alabama since the 1984 season.
• Vanderbilt held Alabama to 35 points, the fewest points scored by the Crimson Tide this season.
VICTORY BREAKDOWN
• The Commodores converted 12-of-18 third-down opportunities leading to 42:08 of possession.
• Vandy’s offense registered 26 first downs in the win, the most in a game this season.
• Vandy took the opening drive down the field for a touchdown, the first touchdown allowed by the Alabama defense in the first quarter this season.
• The Commodore defense picked up its second pick six of the season when Randon Fontenette grabbed a pass tipped by De’Rickey Wright and took it to the end zone. Alabama had not allowed a pick six since 2022.
• Diego Pavia finished the game 16-for-20 with 252 passing yards and two touchdowns. His 80 percent completion rate was the highest mark by an opposing quarterback against the Crimson Tide since 2010, when Stephen Garcia finished with an 85 percent mark for South Carolina, per ESPN Research.
• Pavia found Junior Sherrill for a 36-yard touchdown on a 4th-and-1 play that increased Vandy’s lead back to two scores in the third quarter.
RELIABLE
• Eli Stowers caught six passes for 113 yards in Vanderbilt’s victory over No. 1/2 Alabama, leading the team in both receptions and receiving yards.
• Stowers became the first Vandy tight end since at least 1996 to have multiple games with 100-plus receiving yards in a season.
• He ranks first among tight ends in the SEC, second among Power 4 tight ends and fourth among all tight ends in the country in receiving yards with 333.
• Stowers became just the sixth tight end since 1996 to register 100-plus receiving yards in a game vs. Alabama, joining Ja’Tavion Sanders (Texas), Brock Bowers (Georgia), Kyle Pitts (Florida), Kenny Yeboah (Ole Miss) and Evan Engram (Ole Miss).
WEEKLY AWARDS
• Four Commodores earned weekly honors from the SEC after the team’s 40-35 win over top-ranked Alabama on Oct. 5.
• Diego Pavia (Offensive), Brock Taylor (Special Teams), Gunnar Hansen (Offensive Line) and Miles Capers (Defensive Line) each earned recognition after the win.
• It marks the first time in school history Vanderbilt has collected more than two weekly awards in the same week.
• The last Commodore to win defensive lineman of the week was Dayo Obeyingbo on Nov. 17, 2018, while Bruno Reagan (11.25.17) was the last Vandy offensive lineman to take home the weekly award. Taylor becomes the first special teams player of the week for Vandy since long snapper Wesley Schelling on Nov. 28, 2022.
SIGNAL CALLERS WITH SPEED
• Diego Pavia’s 335 rushing yards this year are already the 18th-most in a season by a Vanderbilt quarterback (since 1965) and eighth-most since 1996.
• At his current pace of 67.0 rushing yards per game, the best mark by a Commodore QB since at least 1996, he would finish the regular season with a quarterback school-record 804 rushing yards.
• Chris Nickson owns the current single-season mark for a QB with 694 rushing yards in 2006.
• Nate Johnson is currently 24 yards away from 100 rushing yards on the season. It would be the 14th time Vanderbilt had two 100-yard rushers at the quarterback position in the same season since 1965 and the first time in over a decade. It last happened in 2013 with Patton Robinette (214 yards) and Austyn Carta- Samuels (115 yards).
• Vanderbilt has had a quarterback reach 100 rushing yards in all four seasons under Clark Lea after not having a signal-caller reach 100 rushing yards in the previous five seasons.
SPECIAL PLAYS, SPECIAL PLAYERS
• Vanderbilt is second in the SEC and eighth in FBS with 18.7 yards per punt return.
• Vanderbilt’s special teams efficiency of 65.9 ranks 25th among FBS programs according to ESPN’s FPI.
• In the win over Alcorn State, Martel Hight became the first Dore with 100-plus punt return yards since Jonathan Krause on Nov. 24, 2012 at Wake Forest (110 yards). Hight’s punt return for a touchdown was the first since Krause’s in that contest.
• Hight is now the first Commodore to have 100-plus punt return yards in a season since the 2019 campaign, reaching the mark in just two games.
• Jesse Mirco is averaging 44.6 yards per punt on the season. Mirco’s 69-yard punt vs. Alcorn State is tied for the 11th-longest punt in FBS this season.
• Brock Taylor drilled a program-record 57-yard field goal at Missouri on Sept. 21. Taylor has three makes of 50 or more yards this season, making him the first player on record to accomplish the feat at Vanderbilt.
