Anchor Drop, October 18, 2022: Five Games to Change the Season

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

There is a strange lack of news today, so here, read the Commodore Brunch from Sunday. (Also, Chris Lee’s latest podcast with former Vanderbilt equipment manager Luke Wyatt is more than a little upbeat about the direction of the program, though there’s plenty of Derek Mason trashing.)

Since I’ve been slumbering since Vanderbilt’s 55-0 loss at Georgia on Saturday, I have a few thoughts I haven’t gotten to: yeah, it sucked. Everybody pretty much agrees at this point that Lea inherited a dumpster fire that wasn’t going to be fixed in one year, but that wasn’t progress. Vanderbilt didn’t look as helpless against Georgia as it did last year, but the kind of mistakes that cause you to lose 55-0 instead of 48-17 or whatever are unnerving.

The line between a successful rebuild and an unsuccessful one can be thin at times, but it seems like it’s much easier to teeter on the edge early in the rebuild in the era of NIL and the transfer portal. After all, we only need look three hours to the east to see what those things can do for a second-year coach in this era. Lea needs to show some progress to keep fans and recruits bought in, and while if you know what you’re looking at you already see it, the average person just sees 55-0 and doesn’t see progress.

So... I don’t know. Win one of the remaining five games (at Missouri, South Carolina, at Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee) and that will be a very good sign for the program.

Sports on TV

All times Central.

• 3:07 PM: ALDS Game 5: Guardians at Yankees (TBS)
• 6:00 PM: NHL: Flyers at Lightning (ESPN)
• 6:30 PM: NBA: 76ers at Celtics (TNT)
• 7:03 PM: NLCS Game 1: Phillies at Padres (FS1)
• 8:30 PM: NHL: Kings at Predators (ESPN)
• 9:00 PM: NBA: Lakers at Warriors (TNT)

Scoreboard

NFL: Chargers 19, Broncos 16.

NHL: Bruins 5, Panthers 3 ... Kings 5, Red Wings 4 ... Canadiens 3, Penguins 2 ... Rangers 6, Ducks 4 ... Coyotes 4, Maple Leafs 2 ... Capitals 6, Canucks 4 ... Avalanche 6, Wild 3 ... Stars 4, Jets 1 ... Hurricanes 5, Kraken 1.