Clark Lea made it through one sentence of his opening statement before choking up. He had just led Vanderbilt football to a 40-35 win over Alabama, the first win over an AP No. 1 ranked team in school history.

Lea and his staff executed a perfect game plan to beat Alabama, severely limiting the Crimson Tide’s possessions. The Commodores didn’t make any major mistakes, and were able to force just enough of them from UA to secure one of the biggest wins in program history, their first over the Crimson Tide since 1984.

The most stunning upset in recent SEC memory was years in the making at the hands of Lea, the eternal optimist