Anchor Drop, January 8, 2019: Good news coming?

Good morning.

Monday was the first day of classes at Vanderbilt, and with it came a couple of pieces of news about who had enrolled in classes, courtesy of VandySports.com.

First, their sources indicated that Darius Garland had enrolled in classes for the spring semester, followed by further news that TE Jared Pinkney and RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn are enrolled as well.

The latter piece of news seems more significant than the former. Darius Garland is, I guess, leaving the door open for a return to the basketball team — if not for his sophomore year, then at least toward the end of this season — even if he’s ostensibly out for the season while recovering from a knee injury. With that said, if he even wants to be on the bench during games (as he was on Saturday, and has been since injuring his knee against Kent State), he has to be enrolled in classes. That one probably doesn’t mean anything other than that Darius wants to enjoy one more semester of college before going to the NBA.

As far as Vaughn and Pinkney go, well, that seems pretty important. The deadline to declare for the NFL Draft is next Monday, and neither has publicly announced his intentions. Both are redshirt juniors and may well have already graduated, and either of them would want to spend the next couple of months preparing for the combine. Now, obviously, either of them could just withdraw from school — but at the very least, still being enrolled at Vanderbilt suggests they’re at least considering returning.

We’ll see how this plays out. The return of either would be a big boost to Vanderbilt’s 2019 offense.

Vanderbilt News

Scottie Pippen was at Vanderbilt yesterday! More importantly, so was his son, a 2019 point guard recruit.

Simi Shittu claimed SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

Tweet of the Day

Off the West End

Yeah, at that point, it was 14-13 in the first quarter. From there, Clemson would outscore Alabama 30-3 to win the national title. With a 19-year-old true freshman quarterback.

That Tua-vs.-Trevor Heisman race next year should be fun, though. Unless Ke’Shawn Vaughn has something to say about it, of course.

You think NFL teams do stupid stuff and then you hear that multiple teams are trying to hire a guy who just got fired for going 5-7 in the Big 12. (The Jets and the Cardinals? Of course the Jets and the Cardinals.)

Bad Gambling Advice

True to the name, this section went 1-4 ATS on Saturday. Do we stop making dumb picks? NEVER.

Texas A&M at Kentucky (-13)

Tennessee at Missouri (+7.5)

Mississippi State (-6.5) at South Carolina

Alabama (+6) at LSU