BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia threw for 160 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for a pair of scores as the Commodores ruined coach Brent Key’s return to his hometown in a 35-27 win over Georgia Tech at the Birmingham Bowl inside Protective Stadium on Friday.
Tech trailed only 14-13 near the end of the third quarter, then gave up 21 consecutive points as the wheels completely fell off before the Jackets scored two late touchdowns. Tech finished 7-6 for the second year in a row and failed to win back-to-back bowl games for the first time since the 2003-04 seasons.
“Congrats to (Vanderbilt coach) Clark (Lea) on his team and a win in the game tonight,” Key said. “I thought the character of our team showed with the final seven minutes of the game and how they fought through adversity that was incurred through the game and continued to play through the end of the game.”
Pavia finished with 16 carries for 84 yards and was named the game’s MVP. Tech got 136 yards rushing out of Jamal Haynes and 204 yards passing and three touchdown throws from Haynes King, but King threw a costly interception and Malik Rutherford lost a fumble in Tech’s sloppy portion of the second half.
The Jackets were flagged 10 times for penalties that amounted to 100 yards, both season highs.
Vanderbilt (7-6) lit up the scoreboard first thanks to Pavia’s 7-yard jump pass to an open tight end, Cole Spence, in the end zone with 2:26 remaining in the first quarter. That play was the result of an eight-play drive that covered nearly 90 yards and was aided by Pavia’s 40-yard completion to Loic Fouonji down the right sideline.
Tech trailed by that score going into the second quarter, but knotted the game on a 2-yard, third-down pass from King to tight end Ryland Goede. Goede’s scoring catch, the first in a career that has been spent at Georgia, Mississippi State and Tech, respectively, polished off a 15-play drive that chewed 7:20 off the clock.
Vandy countered, however, with a 14-play drive of its own that ended when Pavia went play-action from the Tech 2 and kept the ball around right end for a scoring run that put the Commodores ahead 14-7.
The Jackets were left with 1:55 on the clock after the ensuing kickoff and drove the ball to midfield, where they took their first timeout with 35 ticks on the clock. Defensive-holding, unsportsmanlike-conduct and offside penalties on Vanderbilt moved the ball to the 21 before King ran for a 2-yard loss and then was sacked for a loss of three more.
Tech would settle for a 43-yard field goal by Aidan Birr and went into halftime down 14-10.
The Jackets ran five more plays than Vandy in the first half, but were held to 31 fewer yards. The Commodores averaged six yards per play during the first 30 minutes.
Birr opened the scoring in the second half with a 33-yard kick with 8:34 on the third quarter clock. That was the only score of the period until a wild ending to the quarter.
Vandy got possession with 3:14 on the clock and was bailed out by a pass-interference call on third down, a call which Key vehemently disagreed with, earning him an unsportsmanlike-conduct flag. The Jackets were called for defensive holding on the next snap.
One play later, Pavia dumped a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Eli Stowers making the score 21-13. When Tech got the ball back, King threw an interception right to Vandy safety CJ Taylor.
That set up Pavia’s third touchdown toss of the afternoon, a 7-yard fade to the right corner of the end zone making the score 28-13 on the first play of the final 15 minutes. A minute later, Rutherford fumbled on the Vandy 27, and the Commodores quickly went the other way to score on another Pavia run, this one from 6 yards out making the score 35-13 with 9:59 on the clock.
Soon the rain began to fall, a celebration shower for the team from Nashville and a dampening to the end of the season for Atlanta’s team.
After a weather delay of nearly an hour, the Jackets added two late touchdowns, a 9-yard pass from King to Haynes with 5:03 to go and a 2-yard pass from King to Bailey Stockton with 90 seconds left.
“Our job as a team is to go out and execute, is to have the discipline to go out and execute,” Key said. “At the end of the day everyone has a job to do and we have to do our job. Credit to Clark and his football team, they have good football players and (Pavia’s) a good football player.”
Vanderbilt beat Tech for the first time since 1941 and broke a 13-game streak without a win (the teams tied in 1965).
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