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Anchor Drop, August 17, 2021: 18 Days to Kickoff

Vanderbilt football saw two players decommit on Monday.

By Tom Stephenson
Missouri v Vanderbilt Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

We are now 18 days away from Vanderbilt football’s September 4 season opener against East Tennessee State. 18 for the Commodores is quarterback Jeremy Moussa. The 6’3”, 225-pound redshirt junior from Chino, California, arrived as a transfer from San Bernardino Valley College prior to the 2020 season; prior to that, he played a season at Hawaii. Moussa did not see any game action in 2020 and it’s interesting that he seems to be completely left out of any discussions of the quarterback position.

The news from Monday: two players decommitted.

I have a couple of thoughts on this. Prior to these two decommitments, Vanderbilt had 19 players committed in the Class of 2022. The number of players in a given class is always a moving target, but I will note that by my count, Vanderbilt only has ten players who are in their final year of eligibility this season (super seniors Chris Pierce and Tyrell Alexander, thanks to the NCAA rule regarding the extra year of eligibility, don’t currently count against the team’s 85-scholarship limit.) The actual number of players departing the program will probably be more than that, due to transfers and the occasional fourth-year player who forgoes a fifth year.

With all that said, it’s not clear exactly how much room Vanderbilt will have in the 2022 class, but there’s a reasonable chance that the number will be less than 19. That creates an obvious problem if you have 19 commitments in the class. It’s worth noting, too, that Williams and Gates were among the lowest-rated players in the class, though Williams did tweet out this morning that he had confirmed he had an offer from Ole Miss. (As for Gates, his only other listed offers are UTSA, Tulane, and Toledo.)

The short version of this is that this probably isn’t anything to be concerned about.

Sports on TV

All times Central.

  • 12:05 PM: MLB: Red Sox at Yankees (MLB.tv free game/MLB Network)
  • 6:05 PM: MLB: Blue Jays at Nationals (YouTube)
  • 6:05 PM: MLB: Red Sox at Yankees (MLB Network)
  • 6:10 PM: MLB: Orioles at Rays (MLB Network)
  • 9:10 PM: MLB: Pirates at Dodgers (ESPN+)

Scoreboard

MLB: Yankees 2, Angels 1 ... Braves 12, Marlins 2 ... Rays 9, Orioles 2 ... Reds 14, Cubs 5 ... White Sox 5, A’s 2 ... Twins 5, Cleveland 4 ... Royals 7, Astros 6 ... Rockies 6, Padres 5 ... Giants 7, Mets 5 ... Dodgers 2, Pirates 1.

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