What’s next after Vanderbilt Football’s ninth-straight loss

Vanderbilt Football suffered its ninth-straight loss on Saturday in a 42-17 loss to in-state rival Tennessee Volunteers. So, what’s next?

Vanderbilt football started the game about as well as they possibly could on Saturday. After Tennessee scored the first touchdown of the evening, Vanderbilt went on to score ten straight points.

Ken Seals connected with Cam Johnson for Vandy’s first touchdown, which was followed by Sarah Fuller being the first female to record a point in Power 5 football. The Vols responded by fumbling and giving the ball right back to Vandy. The Dores were able to kick a field goal and take its first and only lead of the game.

At that point, ESPN’s win probability meter fell in favor of Tennessee at 67.7%, the lowest of the day for the Vols and most favorable for the Dores. Unfortunately, after that, everything went downhill for Vanderbilt.

On Vandy’s next possession, Seals threw a pick-six to Bryce Thompson, and the Tennessee offense went on to score two more touchdowns before the end of the first half to take a 28-10 lead at halftime.

The second half didn’t fall in Vandy’s favor, either, as the Vols took care of business and went on to win the game 42-17. This isn’t too surprising given the fact that Vandy came into this game 0-8, but the start gave Vandy fans some hope that they could defeat their in-state rival to get its first win of the season.

So now that Vanderbilt is 0-9, what’s next for the Commodores? Well, most obviously, they’ll go into the offseason without having to worry about playing in a bowl game while they go through their coaching search. Vanderbilt fired Derek Mason last week, and with a handful of candidates, the Commodores will hope to strike gold in its next head coaching hire.

There are a few candidates that I think would be interested in coming to Nashville to try to get the Commodores back to where they were before James Franklin took off for Penn State.

Vandy also has one more game before they call this abysmal season to an end. The Dores will likely face the Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday unless either team decides to cancel the game.

Vandy fans can also enjoy the next few days as Vanderbilt is in the news after Fuller made her first field goal attempt of the season. This will likely be the only time Vandy makes national news until they hire their coach. It might be a while before they make news again after that.

The Commodores have never gone winless in a season, and with Georgia being the final opponent left on the schedule, it seems it is imminent before Vanderbilt regretfully makes history.