Anchor Drop, November 29, 2020: A historic moment in a dreadful day

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

Recaps of yesterday’s game:

vucommodores.com: Dores Drop Road Contest at Missouri

Tennessean: Missouri 41, Vanderbilt 0: Sarah Fuller makes history, but Commodores are blown out

Fox Sports: Rountree runs wild in Mizzou’s 41-0 thrashing of Vanderbilt

Kansas City Star: Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller makes history but Mizzou romps

I do not know why I am annoyed by all of this. Not by the Sarah Fuller story itself, but by the fact that Vanderbilt getting blown out — again — is just sort of an afterthought. In fact, the 41-0 margin is Vanderbilt’s worst of the season; it’s also the first time all season the Commodores have been shut out, and this came after a four-game run in which the offense averaged 22.5 points — hardly great, but it seemed to be turning a corner after a rough start.

As they say, however, sunshine is the best disinfectant. I noted last Sunday that the way that Vanderbilt gets covered by the national media — they’re overmatched, but they’re trying! — is an interesting spin that doesn’t jibe with what people who watch the team every week see. Steven Godfrey at Banner Society wrote this on Friday, before the game, and I didn’t see it until last night:

Right now, the expectation among agents and coaches is that the Vanderbilt job will not open after 2020. The Commodores are currently 0-7, and spent a portion of this arrested season just trying to field enough players to have a game. Still, they’ve been far better in their last three losses (38-17 vs. Florida and one-score defeats against Mississippi State and Kentucky) than in early season blowouts to LSU and South Carolina.

And I don’t think you could watch the game yesterday and come to this conclusion. That was a team that had no business being on the field with an SEC team. Whatever happened to the team between the Florida game and yesterday, you couldn’t have watched yesterday’s game and concluded that Vanderbilt needs to retain its coaching staff. Not when tweets such as these were flying from members of the national college football media:

And yes, we get it. The facilities. But that doesn’t explain this turd of a football game. Somehow, the state of the Vanderbilt football program is not the story today.

Yesterday’s Football

Florida 34, Kentucky 10 ... Alabama 42, Auburn 13 ... Ole Miss 31, Mississippi State 24 ... Texas A&M 20, LSU 7 ... Georgia 45, South Carolina 16.

Yesterday’s Basketball

St. Louis 85, LSU 81 ... Liberty 78, South Carolina 62 ... Arkansas 69, North Texas 54.

SEC Basketball Schedule

Bad Gambling Advice: Yesterday: 1-2 ATS, 3-0 totals; Season to date: 6-6-1 ATS, 7-6 totals

South Carolina vs. Tulsa (12:00 PM CT, ESPN2): South Carolina -1, Over 139.5

Richmond at Kentucky (12:00 PM CT, ESPN): Richmond +8, Under 144.5

Florida A&M at Georgia (1:00 PM CT, SEC Network): Georgia -19, Over 139.5

New Orleans at Texas A&M (2:00 PM CT, SEC Network+): New Orleans +21, Over 140