Anchor Drop, June 18, 2019: 74 Days to Kickoff

Good morning.

We are now 74 days away from Vanderbilt football’s season opener against the Georgia Bulldogs. #74 is Cole Clemens, a 6’6”, 310-pound junior offensive lineman from South Jordan, Utah. After appearing in five games as a true freshman, Clemens started 12 games as a sophomore, with eight at left guard and four at right guard. As a junior, Clemens figures to be in the starting lineup, though it remains to be seen if he’ll stay at guard or potentially move to tackle (which he was recruited to play.)

The Vanderbilt baseball team continues in the College World Series tonight, meeting Mississippi State — last year’s nemesis in the super regional — at 6:00 PM CT on ESPN. Kumar Rocker (10-5, 3.50 ERA), who pitched a no-hitter with 19 strikeouts (*and also threw 131 pitches) against Duke in the super regional, will get the start for Vanderbilt. He’ll be opposed by Mississippi State’s Peyton Plumlee (7-4, 3.67 ERA), whose name is an extremely gross mashup of Peyton Manning and the various Plumlees who played basketball at Duke.

Bri Gross of Vanderbilt lacrosse has made the U-19 U.S. women’s national team, and will compete with the team at the World Lacrosse Women’s U-19 Championship in Canada in August.

Darius Garland is bringing Bryce Drew with him to Thursday’s NBA Draft. All righty then.

Here’s the Tennessean on how Nick Zeppos changed Vanderbilt as Chancellor. Frankly — as much as people (not incorrectly) ragged Zeppos for his blind spot to athletics, he probably did more than anyone to move Vanderbilt University into the 21st century.

ICYMI: Former Florida DL Malik Langham, whom Vanderbilt recruited out of Lee High School in Huntsville, has enrolled at Vanderbilt.

Off the West End

From our sister blogs: Alabama lands a top 100 DE, writes Roll Bama Roll ... Arkansas gets eliminated from the CWS ... College and Magnolia reviews the CWS-opening loss to Mississippi State ... LSU lands a defensive line commit, writes And the Valley Shook ... For Whom the Cowbell Tolls speculates on defensive tackles ... Red Cup Rebellion compares Matt Luke’s process to Dabo Swinney’s, presumably with a straight face ... Rock M Nation writes of Mizzou’s 2018 MLB draftees ... Rocky Top Talk writes of Tennessee’s ideal offensive line for 2019.

Four people got shot at the Toronto Raptors’ parade. What do they think this is, America?

SI’s Brian Straus writes of what the CONCACAF Gold Cup means to the USMNT.

LaMelo Ball will play professionally in Australia, because, you know, there was no way he’d be eligible to play college basketball.

A good read from The Athletic ($): How college football’s arms race took off in the 1970s. Also, State of the Program: Ohio State.

Bill C.’s latest preview: Mike Leach’s Pirate School.

Also from the Mothership: The rise of the mercenary NBA superstar.

Scoreboard

College World Series: Texas Tech 5, Arkansas 4 ... Michigan 3, Florida State 0.

MLB: Phillies at Nationals (ppd.) ... Yankees 3, Rays 0 ... Angels 10, Blue Jays 5 ... Reds 3, Astros 2 ... Braves 12, Mets 3 ... Rangers 7, Indians 2 ... Red Sox 2, Twins 0 ... Cardinals 5, Marlins 0 ... Giants 3, Dodgers 2 ... A’s 3, Orioles 2 ... Padres 2, Brewers 0 ... Royals 6, Mariners 4.

FIFA Women’s World Cup: China 0-0 Spain ... South Africa 0-4 Germany ... Nigeria 0-1 France ... South Korea 1-2 Norway.

Copa America: Japan 0-4 Chile.

Gold Cup: Curacao 0-1 El Salvador ... Jamaica 3-2 Honduras.

Today: In the first College World Series game of the day, Auburn meets Louisville at 1:00 PM CT on ESPN.

Women’s World Cup, at 2:00 PM CT, Italy-Brazil (FS1) and Jamaica-Australia (FS2.) Two Gold Cup matches on FS1: Panama-Trinidad & Tobago at 6:30 PM CT, followed by United States-Guyana at 9:00. In Copa America, Bolivia-Peru at 4:30 PM CT and Brazil-Venezuela at 7:30 on ESPN+.

In MLB action, David Price pitches the Red Sox at Minnesota (7:10 PM CT.)