Anchor Drop, August 16, 2021: 19 Days to Kickoff

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

We are now 19 days away from Vanderbilt football’s September 4 season opener against East Tennessee State. 19 for the Commodores is fifth-year senior Chris Pierce. The 6’4”, 235-pound wide receiver from Smithfield, Virginia, elected to take advantage of the free year of eligibility from the NCAA after a senior season in which he posted 25 catches for 371 yards and five touchdowns. This is, I suppose, getting back a year of eligibility for a true freshman season in 2017 in which he mostly played on special teams. For his career, he has 52 receptions for 744 yards and seven touchdowns.

And we’re through a week of spring practice, and Vanderbilt’s defense looked good in Saturday’s scrimmage per basically all reports. This is a good news/bad news situation: Vanderbilt’s defense was bad in 2020, so any sign of improvement is very good news; but then, this came against Vanderbilt’s offense, so it might just be a reflection on the offense. We can only hope it’s the former.

And then there is this:

I can only hope they wanted to get the punter some work in. Clark Lea also had media availability after the scrimmage.

Sports on TV

All times Central.

• 6:10 PM: MLB: Orioles at Rays (ESPN+)
• 7:00 PM: MLB: A’s at White Sox (ESPN)

Scoreboard

MLB: Braves 6, Nationals 5 ... Reds 7, Phillies 4 ... Brewers 2, Pirates 1 ... Red Sox 6, Orioles 2 ... Marlins 4, Cubs 1 ... Cleveland 11, Tigers 0 ... Yankees 5, White Sox 3 ... Cardinals 7, Royals 2 ... Twins 5, Rays 4 ... Rangers 7, A’s 4 ... Giants 5, Rockies 2 ... Angels 3, Astros 1 ... Padres 8, Diamondbacks 2 ... Blue Jays 8, Mariners 3 ... Dodgers 14, Mets 4.