College football legend Steve Spurrier was one of countless football fans who were stunned to see No. 1 Alabama lose to SEC minnow Vanderbilt this past weekend. As you might expect, he had some thoughts on the game.
Appearing on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, Spurrier called the Vanderbilt win a “stunner.” He explained that he was initially surprised when he flipped the channels and saw Vanderbilt ahead so he decided to tune in. Spurrier recalled Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia leading New Mexico State to an upset over Auburn last year and started thinking that
“That was a stunner,” Spurrier said. “Yeah, I drove in. I come in a little early to beat the crowd to watch the Gator game. And so I’m flipping around up there, and I flipped around the Vandy-Alabama game, gee, Vandy is up 23 to 14? So I watched the rest of it all the way through. And then the media boys up in the press box, our game was about to kick off at almost eight o’clock, so all the media guys up there got a chance to watch the end of it. But it’s really interesting …
“Here’s how it happened. Last year, New Mexico State beat Auburn at Auburn, 31-10, and they went up and down the field, gained about 450 yards, and had a quarterback named Diego Pavia, and they run the pistol offense, and Auburn couldn’t stop them. They were on the field about the whole game, just like they were against Alabama.”
Spurrier had high praise for the Vanderbilt coaching staff, highlighting head coach Clark Lea and offensive coordinator Tim Beck and how they pulled off the biggest win in franchise history.
“So Clark Lea, the Vandy coach, he sees that tape, and he goes out there, and he gets a Pavia to come to Vanderbilt and a couple of his teammates and two or three guys, and he brings his offensive coordinator, a guy named Tim Beck,” Spurrier said. “But Clark Lea did not mention Tim Beck’s name in all his interviews. And I kept telling people, whoever that offensive coordinator is, he’s gonna be a head coach somewhere real soon or something, because the offense that they put on Vanderbilt, 12 of 18 on third down conversions, they had about 42 minutes (of possession).
“They ran it, they threw it, they mixed it up. They run what they call the pistol offense, and they know how to coach it. Know how to do it. And this guy, you know, he came in this year, and that’s what’s happening. I don’t know if he’ll still be there next year. The pistol offense that they run is really something that people don’t know how to stop.”
It’s a game that will go down as one of the biggest in the history of SEC football. Pavia, Lea and Beck could all wind up with statues at FirstBank Stadium.
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