Tony Thomas
Writer
No. 10 LSU (5-1, 2-1) vs No. 17 Vanderbilt (5-1, 1-1)
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m. CST
Venue: FirstBank Stadium, Nashville, TN
T.V.: ABC
The date was September 22, 1990. The place was Nashville, TN. Winning football games at Vanderbilt was a pipe dream. They had won just one game the previous season.
The week before, they couldn’t even beat an SMU team that was back from the dead with a roster that consisted of former high school players pulled from their classrooms.
Vanderbilt, coming off a bye week, faced the LSU Tigers, who were 2-0 after victories over Georgia and Miami (Ohio).
The Commodores were motivated to say the least and played all out against the visitors from Baton Rouge. They used two quarterbacks and ran the triple option.
Going into the fourth quarter, LSU held a slim 21-17 lead. The triple option moved down the field like a juggernaut. Then Vanderbilt coach Watson Brown switched signal-callers.
Surprisingly, the Vanderbilt offense kept driving down the field, getting just inside the five-yard line. Watson changed quarterbacks again. The Commodores ran the ball in for the go-ahead score and took a 24-21 lead with 60 seconds left on the game clock.
LSU moved the ball only a short distance and used its last timeout to stop the clock with just 10 seconds left. The Tigers had time for one final, desperation play.
LSU snapped the ball, dropped back, and heaved the old pigskin toward the end zone. The ball stayed airborne like the Tigers were trying to throw it back to Baton Rouge.
When the pass landed, it landed in the glue-like hands of LSU receiver Todd Kinchen for the game-winning score. In the immortal words of Lee Corso, “not so fast, my friend.”
Flag on the play. Offensive interference on LSU. Game over. The final score: Vanderbilt 24 – LSU 21. That was the last time Vanderbilt beat LSU.
Through six games of the 2025 season, there has been some boot scootin’ boogie and adult beverages hoisted on Music Row in celebration of the performance of their favorite sons, the Commodores of Vanderbilt University. The Commodores are 5-1 on the season and ranked No. 17 in this week’s Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll.
The 10th-ranked LSU Tigers are coming off a 20-10 victory over South Carolina, their fourth game of the season scoring 20 points or less. This week’s contest against Vanderbilt marks the beginning of a three-game gauntlet against ranked opponents.
The undisputed leader of the Vanderbilt offense is the quarterback, Diego Pavia. Pavia leads a juggernaut of offensive firepower that averages 43 points per game, good enough for No. 7 nationally and No. 2 in the Southeastern Conference.
Pavia has thrown for 1,409 yards, 14 touchdowns and just four INTs. In addition, he has rushed for 352 yards and two more scores. Pavia has completed 65 percent or better of his passes in five of the six games this season, including four games over 70 percent.
The LSU defense continues to dominate, with five sacks, six tackles for loss and an INT in the win over South Carolina. They rank No. 5 in scoring defense (11.8 points allowed) in the FBS.
LSU owns a 25-7-1 record in the series and has won 10 straight meetings against the Commodores.
But Pavia and head coach Clark Lea have the Commodores sailing full steam ahead. A matchup of ranked opponents in Nashville, with Vanderbilt as an early-2.5-point favorite over the 10th-ranked Tigers, is as good as it gets in college football.
However, look for the LSU defense to rise up again and shut down the high- powered Vanderbilt offense.
Prediction: LSU 24 – Vanderbilt 14
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