Stephen Lew
By Hunt Palmer
LSU and Vanderbilt were founding members of the Southeastern Conference 93 years ago.
As is the case with most everyone in the league, LSU has dominated the series history with Vanderbilt. Among the founding SEC members, LSU has played Georgia and Vanderbilt the fewest times—33. Tennessee is a close follow at 34. Considering the Tigers have met Georgia three times and Tennessee twice in the SEC Championship Game, Vanderbilt is the team LSU has seen the least often in regular season SEC action.
Of the 33 matchups, the Tigers have won 25, lost seven and there was a tie back in October of 1933. In fact, to that point LSU had never beaten Vanderbilt. The two squared off for the first time in 1902—a 27-5 Commodore victory. They met again in 1910, and Vanderbilt won 22-0 in Nashville. The tie came 23 years later in the first SEC matchup between the schools.
LSU would finally beat Vanderbilt 29-0 in 1934 and has won 24 of the next 29.
Vanderbilt has not beaten LSU since 1990, a 24-21 battle in Nashville. From 1996 until last season’s 24-17 LSU win, LSU had held Vanderbilt to single digits in seven of eight games. The exception was a 38-point Vanderbilt outburst in 2019 that coincided with LSU’s highest point total ever in an SEC game, the 66 that Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase helped post in Nashville.
That day, Burrow fired a school-record six touchdowns. Chase became the third LSU receiver to score at least four touchdowns in a game while posting 229 receiving yards – fourth-most in LSU history. Burrow would break that record with seven touchdown passes (all in the first half) against Oklahoma months later in the College Football Playoff.
Vanderbilt has been a doormat, traditionally. That’s no surprise to anyone. Head coach Clark Lea has turned the tide in Nashville thanks to Diego Pavia at quarterback and a physical group of overachievers in black and gold.
Last year, the Commodores won seven games and held LSU, Texas and Missouri to one-score games. In Baton Rouge, Vanderbilt took a lead on its first play from scrimmage, a 63-yard strike from Pavia to Quincey Skinner Jr.
LSU would assume control of the game and carry a two-score lead for much of the second half, but Pavia and the Commodores scored to cut the lead to seven with just under six minutes left. The final was 24-17.
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The most impactful relationship between Vanderbilt and LSU football is the 1994 hiring of Gerry DiNardo. LSU was in the market for a coach after Curley Hallman was fired in 1994, and DiNardo, Vanderbilt’s head coach at the time, got the job following a 65-0 Vanderbilt loss to Tennessee.
DiNardo went 5-6 in three of his four seasons at Vanderbilt. His conference record was 9-22, but that signaled to LSU that he was maintaining a competitive program at a place where doing so was extremely difficult.
The move proved a promising one early in DiNardo’s tenure at LSU when he “brought the magic back” in 1995 and went 26-9-1 in his first three seasons, the highlight being the victory over No. 1 Florida in 1997.
DiNardo’s program slipped in 1998 and 1999, and he was fired with one game to play in 1999. He did help with the foundation Nick Saban inherited, and the rest is not just history, but the golden age of LSU football.
In a smaller sense, a pair of quarterbacks have played for both LSU and Vanderbilt in the last 15 years. AJ Swann started 12 games for Vanderbilt over two seasons and transferred to LSU in 2024 where he saw action in two games. Stephen Rivers, younger brother of NFL star Phillip, was Zach Mettenberger’s backup at LSU in 2012 and some of 2013. He would spend a year at Vanderbilt in 2014 where he started one game.
- OVERALL RECORD: 25-7-1 LSU
- IN BATON ROUGE: 12-2-1 LSU
- IN NASHVILLE: 13-5 LSU
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