The Vanderbilt Commodores are bowl-eligible after a 17-7 win over the Auburn Tigers on Saturday afternoon. That win lifts Vanderbilt to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the SEC, and should send them to a bowl game for the first time since the 2018 season.
The truly stunning thing about Vanderbilt’s turnaround this year is just how competitive it has been in the toughest conference in the country.
While the 2024 version of Auburn is a shell of what it used to be at its peak, the Commodores have more than held their own against every opponent they have played this season. Their biggest win of the season was a stunning 40-35 win over then-No. 1 Alabama, while they also lost to then-No. 7 Missouri and then-No. 5 Texas by just three points each.
They have been in every game they have played, while this is just the fourth time in the past 15 years they have won at least three games in the SEC.
The subplot to this game is that Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia continues to be a gigantic thorn in the side of Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze.
Pavia has now quarterbacked a team that has upset a Freeze-coached team in three consecutive seasons.
In 2022 Pavia, who was quarterbacking New Mexico State, handed Freeze’s Liberty Flames an embarrassing 49-14 loss. Pavia threw three touchdowns in the game.
In 2023, Pavia and New Mexico State did it to Freeze again during his first year at Auburn with a 31-10 game, with Pavia again throwing three touchdowns in the win.
Then this season, after transferring to Vanderbilt, Pavia did it go Freeze again on Saturday, this time throwing a pair of touchdown passes.
Overall, Pavia is 3-0 against Freeze-coached teams with eight touchdowns to zero interceptions.
