Vanderbilt Football: Commodores beat Tennessee to earn bowl berth

In the battle of mediocre SEC East squads, Vanderbilt football emerged victorious over rebuilding Tennessee to clinch their trip to the postseason.

This game has grown up a bit as it were from a season ago. Last year, this one was called the toilet bowl as the two fought it out for their first conference win of the season The 2018 version saw Vanderbilt and Tennessee fight for their third win in conference and bowl eligibility, so I guess that is an improvement from being the worst of the worst in the conference. That title this season belongs to Arkansas.

The Commodores won 38-13 behind a wonderful night by quarterback Kyle Shurmur. He finished 31 of 35 for 367 yards and three touchdowns. Not too shabby for a team that isn’t exactly known for football and lives in the land of “no one talks or cares about us.” Their defense did just enough to keep Tennessee off the scoreboard.

On the other side, first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt doesn’t bring his Volunteers to bowl eligibility in year one. However, he has brought back a swagger and a confidence to Knoxville that hasn’t been seen in quite a while and that is something they should be very proud of. Is it disappointing for the senior class that put their blood, sweat and tears into this program for four years? Yeah probably, but it is a happy moment to see how much they have grown.

This is a program that at one point was a big-time threat in the East. Now, not so much. That will be changing here soon though, you can count on that. Now, for the Commodores, they are pretty much destined to be at the bottom. I’m sorry y’all, but football isn’t your thing.