Anchor Drop, August 6, 2021: 29 Days to Kickoff

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

Today marks 29 days until Vanderbilt football’s September 4 season opener against ETSU. 29 for the Commodores is freshman linebacker Miles Capers. At 6’5” and 225 pounds, Capers is listed as a linebacker on the Vanderbilt roster, but 247 Sports ranked him as the #86 edge rusher in the Class of 2021.

Oh, hey! That’s right, if you look at the roster page, everybody now has jersey numbers. I suppose with fall camp opening today, they kind of had to do it. Anyway, I’ll have a separate post for the freshman class, but for now, here are the players who were on the team last year and switched jersey numbers:

• Anfernee Orji, 26 to 0 (Orji is the first player to ever wear 0 at Vanderbilt)
• Elijah McAllister, 41 to 1
• Dashaun Jerkins, 33 to 3
• Chase Lloyd, 22 to 4
• Gabe Jeudy-Lally, 6 to 13
• Will Sheppard, 81 to 14
• Camden Coleman, 42 to 15
• Jeremy Moussa, 6 to 18
• Jack Barton, 29 to 20
• Maxwell Worship, 14 to 21
• Ryan McCord, 27 to 25
• BJ Anderson, 16 to 26
• Brendon Harris, 13 to 27
• Jared Wheatley, 36 to 30
• Michael Spencer, 46 to 31
• Ethan Barr, 50 to 32
• De’Rickey Wright, 30 to 33
• Luke Blanton, 51 to 34
• Malik Langham, 99 to 35
• Tommy Eckels, 53 to 40
• Wesley Schelling, 58 to 47
• Alston Orji, 24 to 53
• Alex Brown, 52 to 56
• Pierson Cooke, 37 to 59
• Derek Green, 92 to 64
• Jonathan Stewart, 73 to 76
• Trent Weaver, 67 to 79
• Alex Williams, 8 to 80
• Tyrell Alexander, 11 to 81
• Devin Boddie Jr., 14 to 82
• Logan Kyle, 18 to 89
• Nate Clifton, 96 to 90
• Christian James, 44 to 91
• Raashaan Wilkins Jr., 95 to 94
• Tolu Thomas-Allara, 94 to 98
• Lorenza Surgers, 97 to 99

So — that’s a lot of number switches! If you’re curious about the why, well, Clark Lea appears to be handing out jersey numbers like Tom Stephenson would, in that there are no duplicate numbers on the roster, which also means that only two numbers are unassigned (73 and 93.) See, it can be done! If this was all a ploy to get rid of all the duplicate numbers, I salute you, Clark Lea.

In other news, soccer released its television schedule on Thursday, with four games televised on the SEC Network: August 22 vs. Purdue, October 10 vs. Arkansas, October 17 at Ole Miss, and October 24 at Texas A&M. I assume everything else is on the SEC Network+, now ESPN+.

And, men’s golf has announced its schedule, opening the season at the Carmel Cup in Pebble Beach on September 3-5. Pebble Beach is always good!