Alabama football is set to make its first SEC road trip of the Kalen DeBoer era on Saturday, when it faces Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Commodores enter the game 2-2, while Alabama is coming off a thrilling win over Georgia at 4-0, and is the newly crowned No. 1 team on the AP media poll.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 3:15 p.m. CT Saturday in Nashville. The game will be aired on the SEC Network.

Before that, here’s what to know about Vanderbilt.

The coach

Weirdly enough, Clark Lea and Kalen DeBoer go all the way back to South Dakota. While DeBoer was running the show at Sioux Falls in the NAIA, Lea took his first full-time coaching job at South Dakota State, as linebackers coach in 2007.

“I think we’re both still pretty young, if I can say that, but we were certainly young then” Lea said Tuesday. “Kalen had already built a great reputation as a head coach and I used to see him at clinics. It’s been a lot of fun to follow his career, because I admire the way that he worked his way up through the ranks.”

Lea returned to Nashville to coach at his alma mater in 2021. The Commodores have continued to struggle throughout his tenure, largely due to the innate disadvantages Vanderbilt faces in the SEC.

His best season at VU came in 2022, when the Commodores went 5-7 overall, winning two SEC games.

Prior to joining Vanderbilt, where he played football from 2002-04, he worked as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly, a role he was promoted to after Mike Elko left for Texas A&M. Lea’s career also includes stops at Wake Forest, Syracuse, Bowling Green and UCLA.

The quarterback

After struggling to a 2-10 record in 2023, Lea and company went looking in the transfer portal. VU found quarterback Diego Pavia.

Pavia joined the Commodores after spending the past two years of his career at New Mexico State, having started at New Mexico Military Institute. He won Conference USA’s player of the year award last season with the Aggies, helping them knock off Auburn in the process.

He’s been a bolt of lighting for the Commodores this season. Pavia, listed at a dubious 6-feet tall, 207 pounds, has thrown for 721 yards and six touchdowns so far, and has rushed for another 279 yards and two scores.

The Commodores scored a unique challenge for opponents in Pavia, who they often use in the option game. He’s the key to Vanderbilt’s offense this season, and a change of pace from anything Alabama has seen so far.

The season

Vanderbilt, as is customary, wasn’t expected to do much this season. The Commodores exceeded those expectations in their first game, beating Virginia Tech 34-27 in Nashville.

The next week, VU took down Alcorn State 55-0. After that, things took a turn.

The Commodores lost to the Sun Belt’s Georgia State on the road in Week 3. Then it took traveled to Columbia, Mo., where Missouri was expected to crush Lea’s group.

That didn’t happen. Vanderbilt led much of the way, before the Tigers pulled off the win in double overtime due to a missed VU field goal.

Vanderbilt enters Saturday’s game off a bye week.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) — The eighth annual Worlds of Works showcased to freshman students what life has to offer after graduating high school.

The two-day career expo, organized by West Alabama Works, is being held at Shelton State Community College. Students are emersed into 11 different career pathways such as healthcare, agriculture, public service, construction and welding.

Interactive booths are set up throughout the college, allowing students to see what health care, agriculture, law enforcement, hospitality and trade workers do every day.

“It actually helps me understand the careers a lot more,” Central High Schooler Shamiya Dotson said.

Junior League of Tuscaloosa hosts ‘Period Pantry’ initiative through mid-October

The hands-on career fair provides students with a unique experience to help them decide on what they want to study in college or what career they’ll pursue.

Although ninth graders have three years until they walk across the graduation stage, WOW’s executive director Donny Jones said it is important students start thinking about their future now.

“The reason we have our ninth graders come is because in the ninth grade, they are making decisions for all of their career technical choices for the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade,” Jones said.

More students in West Alabama are pursuing a trade post high school. Jones says WOW is one reason the area is seeing an uptick in enrollment.

“We’ve been tracking our career technical enrollment and we’ve seen anywhere from 5 to 18% increase year over year in the different CTE programs,” Jones said.

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Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban won six National Championships during his time in Tuscaloosa, with the first one coming in the 2009 season, which broke a 17-year dry spell.

There were several Crimson Tide greats on this roster, including wide receiver Julio Jones, who led the team in every receiving category as a sophomore. Jones became an Alabama legend the following season after practically doubling his numbers in every stat category, and his dominance helped him get selected by the Atlanta Falcons as the sixth overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft.

Jones quickly emerged as one of the best players in the league at his position, as he was named to his first Pro Bowl in his second season. Jones succumbed to a season-ending injury early in his third season, but he picked himself up and proceeded to make six-straight Pro Bowl appearances and two First Team All-Pro lists, leading the league in yards per game three times and was the NFL’s receiving yards leader in 2015 and 2018.

Jones, who’s from Foley, Alabama, has remained close to his roots over the years and has helped the Crimson Tide out for quite some time. The 35-year-old is currently a free agent and has come to a couple of Alabama games this year. On Wednesday, Alabama wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard opened up about Jones and his impact on the program, especially during the Tide’s instant classic against Georgia this past Saturday.

“Love that guy, he’s awesome!” Shephard said. “I just respect him so much because he came to me and said ‘Hey coach, last game that I was here, I was on the verge of saying something to the guys to say certain things to them, but I refrained from it because I didn’t want to step on your toes.’”

“I made it extremely clear: ‘Julio, I played zero snaps in the NFL and you’re one of the greatest wide receivers that any of them have ever known. You’ve earned that right by what you did here at the University of Alabama and the NFL. You would actually be doing me a disservice by not talking to them. Whether it’s during, before or after the game, if you want me to be quiet, Julio, you got it.’ I just respect what he’s done and what he’s meant to this program. It was amazing just to meet him the first time because it’s Julio Jones, man. I used his film forever.”

Jones is frequently mentioned by not just former Alabama players but also NFL greats as a role model to the game. For example, 11-time Pro Bowler and future first-ballot Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald called Jones “the best I’ve ever seen,” in 2019.

Shephard shared an anecdote of Jones’ recruitment to Alabama that he still hears about from a clip that sits in his barbershop.

“I think coach Saban said we had four guys committed in the class and you’re going to be the fifth,” Jones said in the clip. “Julio said ‘I don’t care how many guys you got in the class! When you come to Alabama, you’re going to compete.’

“You got no choice but to compete,” a man in the barber chair interrupted, per Shephard. “That’s why cream rises to the top.”

“When we talk about Julio Jones, that’s why cream rises to the top,” Shephard said. “I’m trying to get my guys to emulate the things that he did, not only at Alabama, but also in the National Football League.”

As the Crimson Tide’s season continues, how many more games will Jones be around the team for? Based on the unforgettable outcome of the Georgia game and the impact he has on the program and the NFL, Jones can probably talk to Alabama’s wide receivers as often as he wants.