One of Kalen DeBoer’s most difficult moments in his career as the Alabama head coach was when the Crimson Tide lost 40-35 to Vanderbilt last year, despite being massively favored to win that week.
The two teams are set to meet again for a rematch in Week 6 in the 2025 college football season, and Alabama QB Ty Simpson is clear about his mindset heading into the game.
Simpson shared on Tuesday that even though he wasn’t playing in that game last year, he remembers how it felt. He talked about what the mentality of the locker room is, saying:
“The mentality in the locker room this week is ‘We remember what happened last year and what are we going to do about it?’ Even though it’s not about last year, it’s about us, we’re not gonna make the same mistake again. You know what I mean?”
“They’re not the same team as last year, and neither are we. They’re better and we’re better in some ways. This is a top-25 matchup with College GameDay coming here. This is a really, really good Vanderbilt team, and it could be one of the biggest games of the year. We need to come in with the mentality like we’ve had in the last couple of games with a chip on our shoulder. Like it’s Alabama vs. The World,” he added.
Ryan Williams Shared Revengeful Plan Against Vanderbilt in the Offseason
Last year’s loss against Vanderbilt wasn’t easy for the Crimson Tide team. During the offseason, wide receiver Ryan Williams discussed how important the 2025 game will be.
During an interview with Jon Gruden in June, Williams shared that going into this game, the Alabama team will not call it a revenge game. He affirmed that the team is going to ‘kill an ant with a sledgehammer’ in their rematch.
He also said that not just Vanderbilt, but every team they struggled against last year, they will have a special eye on them in 2025.
“Going into this game, we don’t call them revenge games, we’re going to kill an ant with a sledgehammer this year,” Williams told Gruden. “Every game we fell short last year, we definitely got red eyes going into them (this year).”
Alabama is coming off a much-needed win against Kirby Smart’s Georgia in week 5.
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