Unranked Vanderbilt stuns No. 1 Alabama in historic college football upset

Fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores danced onto the field, jumping up and down as they tore down a goal post, carried it out of the stadium and rang out sweet sounds of victory.

Their school's historic win over No. 1 Alabama deserved to be celebrated this way.

Sedrick Alexander ran for two touchdowns, Randon Fontenette scored on a pick-six and Diego Pavia outplayed Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe as Vanderbilt stunned Alabama 40-35 on Saturday for the Commodores' first win over the nation's top-ranked team.

Vanderbilt (3-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) had lost all 60 games against AP top-five teams, according to SportRadar. The Commodores hadn't beaten Alabama on the field in 40 years, but they snapped a 23-game skid making big play after big play to give coach Clark Lea his alma mater's biggest win ever.

"This is the dream, right here," Lea said. "And for the next 12 hours, I'm going to enjoy the dream. We've got more ahead of us, but this is what Vanderbilt football needs to be about: Big wins on big stages. We're going to go get some more."

DOWN GOES THE FIELD GOAL POSTS!!! <a href="https://t.co/oGqGLNNGJd">pic.twitter.com/oGqGLNNGJd</a>

The Commodores scored the first 13 points and took a 16-point lead that was their largest ever over the No. 1 team in the country. Only Jam Miller running for his second TD just before halftime trimmed that to 23-14.

Alabama had just moved to the top of the AP Top 25 last week after a win over then-No. 2 Georgia.

Alexander capped the game's opening drive with a seven-yard TD to put Vandy ahead to stay. It marked the first time since 2007 that Vandy had opened a game against Alabama with a TD, the last time being Nick Saban's second game as coach.

The Tide (4-1, 1-1) helped