Ryan Williams makes guarantee for Alabama's 2025 rematch with Vanderbilt: 'We’re going to kill an ant with a sledgehammer'

Alabama superstar receiver Ryan Williams isn’t mincing words about what he expects will happen when Vanderbilt comes to Tuscaloosa in 2025 after last year’s shocking upset of the then-No. 1 Crimson Tide.

Sparked by star quarterback Diego Pavia, the Commodores stunned the entire college football world — and sent Alabama fans reeling — with last season’s 40-35 upset in Nashville.

“Going into this game, we don’t call them revenge games, we’re going to kill an ant with a sledgehammer this year,” Williams told Jon Gruden during a recent sit-down with the former NFL head coach. “Every game we fell short last year, we definitely got red eyes going into them (this year).”

Alabama's loss to Vanderbilt last season SHOCKED college football, and I got to ask Ryan Williams how Alabama dealt with that and how they will respond this season! pic.twitter.com/n4PtzgIAt8

— Jon Gruden (@BarstoolGruden) June 2, 2025

Alabama’s loss snapped a 23-game win streak over Vanderbilt and was the first loss to the Commodores in 40 years, the last coming in a 30-21 setback back in 1984.

“Man, they just played a better football game than us that game,” Williams told Gruden. “We came out slow and they capitalized. They held the ball, they had their gameplan and they executed it.”

The Tide’s Oct. 5 loss in Nashville came the same week it was elevated to the No. 1 ranking after knocking off then-No. 2 Georgia in Tuscaloosa, 41-34, in a breakout game for Williams, who finished with six receptions for 177 yards including the game-winning 75-yard touchdown from quarterback Jalen Milroe.

Williams accounted for a pair of touchdowns — one receiving, one rushing — a week later against Vanderbilt, but Alabama’s defense had no answer for Pavia, who combined for 308 yards of total offense and two scores himself in what amounted to his own breakout moment.

Pavia will be back with the Commodores in 2025 after winning his legal case against the NCAA for an additional season of collegiate eligibility. A Tennessee district judge granted Pavia a preliminary injunction against the NCAA enforcing its eligibility standards last December, prompting the NCAA to grant a blanket waiver allowing former JUCO athletes whose eligibility was exhausted last season to participate in the 2025 season.

Williams and Alabama will host Pavia and Vanderbilt in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 4 for what will undoubtedly be an important game for the Crimson Tide after last season’s disappointment in Nashville.