What Vanderbilt’s game cancelation means for Tennessee Football game
Tennessee Football and Vanderbilt will be facing off in the final week of the season, but they might not after Vandy canceled the Georgia game.
Vanderbilt football canceled its game against Georgia, and now there are conflicting reports about the reason behind the cancelation. If this carries over into the next couple of weeks, it could affect Tennessee football and Vandy’s season finale when the two in-state rivals will face off.
The cancelation’s conflicting reasons were COVID, from Stadium’s Brett Murphy, and Vanderbilt was unable to meet roster requirements, from Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger. There have been reports that since Derek Mason’s firing, some Vanderbilt players have considered opting out of the rest of the season.
Dellenger followed-up with his initial report that the reason Vanderbilt couldn’t meet roster requirements was due to COVID, injuries, and opt-outs. Although the initial reports were conflicting, it seems like both were correct in part.
Vanderbilt’s interim head coach Todd Fitch has quite the situation on his hand with the regular season so close to coming to a close. I’m sure that’s what people within Vandy’s athletic department want is for the season to just end.
Joe Kinsey at Outkick reported that Fitch was trying to get Vanderbilt’s 2019 kicker to come to Georgia to replace Sarah Fuller, the female soccer player that took over kicking duties last week in Mason’s final game as head coach.
As of right now, we don’t know Fuller’s future with the football team, nor do we know how the Commodores will finish the season. Brett Murphy followed-up his report with the Vandy-Georgia game being rescheduled to December 19, the Saturday of the SEC Championship.
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Vanderbilt does not have a game this Saturday, but Tennessee does. The Vols will take on the Texas A&M Aggies this Saturday as Vandy tries to figure everything out within their program.
We might know more this time next week as the Commodores will have to make roster decisions. Vanderbilt’s situation could hurt the Vols, too. At this point, Vanderbilt’s football team is a complete disaster with internal strife throughout the team.
Vandy is 0-8, and they likely won’t win either of their final two games if they play them.If things don’t get any better within the program, then I wouldn’t be surprised if Vanderbilt uses COVID to get out of their final two games of the year.
If they try to do that, will they get away with it? Well, Georgia is going to go to a bowl game. We don’t know what bowl game yet, but they’ll probably be heading to a New Year’s Six Bowl as long as they can finish the season without losing another game.
Tennessee, on the other hand, most likely won’t be going to a bowl game. If the Vanderbilt game is canceled, Tennessee will likely finish its season with a 2-7 record, but since they’re not going to a bowl game, Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee athletic department could try to push for a late-December game against Vanderbilt.
That would give Vanderbilt plenty of time to figure things out within the program, and that would give Pruitt and the Vols the bowl practices that Pruitt is hoping for.
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I wouldn’t take anything off the table when it comes to what could happen with Vanderbilt over the past week. I’m not sure what’s all happening at Vanderbilt or if there’s more to the story than what we’re seeing, but there’s a decent chance after a terrible week they try to end their season two games early.