This IS Your Great, Great Grandfather’s Vanderbilt As LSU Is 1st Ranked Underdog To Commodores Since 1947

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

If you walked downtown Nashville in the fall of 1947 and dropped by the Ernest Tubb Record Shop at 417 Broadway under its iconic sign and staple of the country music city, you might have heard Hank Williams’ “Move It on Over” or Tubb’s “Walking The Floor Over You.”

And at the time, the Vanderbilt football team that played less than two miles away at Dudley Field was not being moved or walked over. Coach Red Sanders’ team was ranked No. 10 in the country by the Associated Press and beat first-year Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught’s No. 18 and eventual SEC champion Rebels, 10-6, in front of 22,000 at Dudley on Oct. 11.

LSU is not playing 6-0 Navy Saturday, but it feels like it to Brian Kelly:https://t.co/P1zcbr3YZG

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 16, 2025

Two weeks later after a 14-0 loss at home to No. 20 Kentucky, No. 19 Vanderbilt (3-1, 2-1 SEC) was No. 19 in the country when it ventured to Baton Rouge to play No. 18 LSU (3-1, 0-1 SEC) in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers had just jumped into the poll for the first time that season with a 14-13 win at Boston College in a rare Friday night game on Oct. 17 at Alumni Stadium on campus.

LSU beat Vanderbilt, 19-13, on homecoming night on Oct. 25, 1947.

And LSU and Vanderbilt have never played again with both teams ranked since.

Until Saturday, that is, when the No. 10 Tigers (5-1, 2-1 SEC) play at No. 17 Vanderbilt (5-1, 1-1 SEC) at FirstBank Stadium two miles away from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, which just reopened with a new iconic sign last Oct. 13 after being sold and closed for three years.

The Vanderbilt football program basically closed from 1960 through 1967 with eight straight losing seasons, again in 1969 with five more lost seasons in a row through 73 and six more straight from 1976-81. It really closed in 1983 with 25 straight losing seasons through 2007 under various owners – or head coaches, so to speak. From 1962-1990, Vanderbilt had seven seasons with one win.

That includes 1990 when Vanderbilt’s only win in a 1-10 season was over – you guessed it – LSU, 24-21, in front of 33,149 at Vanderbilt Stadium in a TBS morning game. That Vanderbilt team – coached by Mack Brown’s older brother Watson Brown – is perhaps the only 1-10 team that LSU has lost to in history. The Tigers finished 5-6 that season and coach Mike Archer was fired.

LSU will need this guy’s wits to contain Diego Pavia in Nashville on Saturday:https://t.co/yDCcvU7tZ3

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 16, 2025

Vanderbilt’s history all changed under James Franklin in 2012 and ’13, but only briefly. Yes, that James Franklin, who was just fired at Penn State after coaching there beginning in 2014. Franklin went 9-4 and 5-3 and 4-4 in back-to-back seasons at Vanderbilt in 2012 and ’13, becoming the first coach there to have two winning seasons since Art Guepe, who had four winning seasons from 1955-59.

But he left for Penn State, and Vanderbilt had seven straight losing seasons under Derek Mason and three straight under current coach Clark Lea beginning in 2021.

Lea, who was defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly from 2018-20 and his linebacker coach in 2017, broke the spell last season with a 7-6 and 3-4 season campaign. And he is two wins away from becoming the first Vanderbilt coach with back-to-back winning seasons since Franklin.

But Lea has done something much more. He is the first Vanderbilt coach to be favored over LSU since Red Sanders in 1948, breaking a string of 19 games in which the Tigers were favored over the Commodores. LSU won 17 of those with the only losses 1990 as previously mentioned and, 7-0, in 1957 in Nashville.

Favored Vanderbilt beat LSU, 48-7, on Nov. 6, 1948, in Nashville. Lea’s Commodores, whose only loss was 30-14 to now-No. 6 Alabama two weeks ago on the road, is favored by 2.5 points over LSU on Saturday.

Lea is also the first Vanderbilt coach to be favored against a ranked opponent since that Ole Miss game in 1947 when Sanders’ No. 10 team beat No. 18 Ole Miss, 10-6.

“It creates a big stage,” Lea said Wednesday. “We’re excited for that opportunity.”

“I think it was pretty obvious what was going on.”
-LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier discusses abdomen injury for 1st time:https://t.co/FBxw3SpXmU

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 15, 2025

There are a lot of stages in Nashville, but FirstBank Stadium seats only 40,000 – easily the smallest in the SEC. But No. 1 Alabama could not navigate it last season, and lost, 40-35, to become the first No. 1 to ever lose to Vanderbilt. The Tide never recovered and missed the playoffs.

A loss by LSU Saturday would put it in danger of not making the playoffs for the sixth straight season. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and his team will likely have to put up more than 20 points to beat Vanderbilt and dangerous quarterback Diego Pavia. That was all LSU needed in 20-10 SEC wins over second division Florida and South Carolina, but not quite enough against Ole Miss in a 24-19 loss.

But Nussmeier appears to have regained his swagger last week.

“I actually enjoy playing on the road more than I do playing at home at times,” Nussmeier said. “Not because I don’t like playing in front of our fans, but there’s nothing like going and taking the life out of a stadium. Making a big play, and you hear the place go silent. There’s nothing like it. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Big road games are a lot of fun.”

But this may not be the same Vanderbilt that LSU has beaten 10 straight times and 14 of the last 15.

LSU will basically enter the Vanderbilt Time Machine Saturday, and if it can’t navigate it, the Tigers will find themselves in the Twilight Zone this season.