Anchor Drop, July 12, 2019: 50 Days to Kickoff

Good morning.

We are now 50 days away from Vanderbilt football’s season opener. #50 is Sean McMoore (sometimes referred to as “Sean Auwae” or “Sean Auwae-McMoore.”) The 6’4”, 292-pound redshirt junior offensive lineman played in eight games last season, some of them as a fullback in goal line sets. Recruited as a center, the starting job is right there going into 2019 with Bruno Reagan and Egidio DellaRipa gone.

South Carolina’s Rivals site lists Vanderbilt as their third-easiest game of the season. Twitter block lists growing as we speak.

Adam Sparks and Joe Rexrode have a new podcast out.

Pat DeMarco signs with the Yankees:

Off the West End

A brutal ESPN piece about the injury time bomb that is youth basketball.

So, yeah: some superparents decided a while back that the best thing to do with an athletic kid is to have them play the same sport for ten months a year, and then act surprised at the number of Tommy John surgeries and ACL tears for 18-year-olds.

How Mount Vernon, Texas, has reacted to the hiring of Art Briles. Actually an interesting read.

ESPN announced the fields for its sponsored early-season college basketball tournaments.

And so it begins: NC State got a Notice of Allegations, the first known to have come out of the FBI’s college basketball investigation.

Dennis Dodd releases his college football hot seat rankings. Derek Mason is a “3”, meaning “pressure is mounting,” which is the same as he was last year. It’s also the same as both Jim Harbaugh and Gus Malzahn, and that all three of those have the same ranking should tell you how useful it is. (Mason and Harbaugh are both guys where outside media seem to think their seats are hotter than people close to the program do, whereas Gus is basically the reverse.)

College Basketball Talk has the SEC offseason reset. You won’t believe where they picked Vanderbilt!

Losing their two most talented players (Garland and Shittu) from an 0-18 team in the SEC means last place is likely inevitable for the Commodores. New head coach Jerry Stackhouse convincing double-figure scorers Saben Lee and Aaron Nesmith to return is positive news for the future while freshman forward Dylan Disu is a young piece to track.

From The Athletic ($): How FBS schools meet the 15,000 requirement for attendance, and why the rule still exists. State of the Program: Northern Illinois. State of the Hoops Program: Iowa.

(Northern Illinois, of course, is on Vanderbilt’s schedule this year.)

Presented without comment:

Scoreboard

MLB: Rangers 5, Astros 0.

PGA Tour: Roberto Diaz leads the John Deere Classic after shooting a first-round 62.