The college football world rejoiced — and marveled — when the long-suffering Vanderbilt Commodores defeated the nation’s top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 5. It barely made sense: What had changed since last season, when the ’Dores failed to win a single Southeastern Conference game? The answer lay at least in part in Las Cruces, N.M.
While Vandy spent the 2023 season as the punching bag of the SEC, head coach Clark Lea took great interest in the New Mexico State Aggies, a team that pulled off their own improbable upset over the Auburn Tigers that season thanks to clever coaching and undersized, under-the-radar quarterback Diego Pavia. Lea spent the offseason recruiting Pavia and five Aggies coaches: offensive coordinator Tim Beck, head coach Jerry Kill (now a “chief consultant” to Lea) and position coaches Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford, Melvin Rice and Garrett Altman. This infusion of talent seems to have helped inspire a real turnaround — not just a one-off upset — as the ’Dores are bowl eligible for the first time since current Vandy freshmen were in middle school. Regardless of how the rest of the season goes, they’ve made history thanks to a bunch of Aggies.
—Cole Villena
Associate Editor, Nashville Scene
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