As Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller breaks football barrier, Mizzou makes statement, too
If this were like any other fall Saturday, Sarah Fuller would have been preparing to play in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament after leading Vanderbilt to the Southeastern Conference tourney title last week.
Symptomatic of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, though, NCAA postseason soccer play was postponed. Then Vandy’s football team was down kickers and in need of what she could provide.
So in one of the sorts of silver linings to emerge from this distressing time, the goalkeeper morphed into a football kicker in days, booting them through from around 38 yards out in practice. And then she made history Saturday at Faurot Field while Missouri was clobbering the Commodores 41-0.
With her squib kick to open the second half against Missouri, Fuller became the first woman to play in a college football game at the elite Power Five level … an event she said made her less nervous than playing for the SEC championship last week.
(Several women played at other levels, and Katie Hnida was in uniform for Colorado but never appeared in a game before transferring to New Mexico and becoming the first to score points in Division I football.)
The much-anticipated moment was met with a rousing ovation from the crowd of 11,053, limited by COVID restrictions. And it was embraced by teammates, including quarterback Mike Wright — who previously had stood up to derogatory comments about her on Twitter and commended her for giving a halftime pep talk.
“You can take a leader out of their sport, but at the end of the day she’s still a leader,” he said after the game, later adding, “Sarah is a Vanderbilt football player.”
As such, her name and “PlayLikeAGirl” (as she had etched on the back of her helmet) were trending on Twitter. And all across social media, you could see families gathered and even little boys excited about it and read of some tears being shed.
For that matter, it was celebrated across the field. Before the game, MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz greeted Fuller with a brief chat and fist bump and told her he admired her courage in breaking a barrier.
Afterward, Fuller remembered him telling her “this is incredible” and that he had mentioned having four daughters of his own.
There was a great statement in all that. But this day also was about another statement by Mizzou, which never gave Fuller another chance to get on the field with such a smothering defensive performance that the Commodores never even got in field-goal range.
In the process of outgaining winless Vanderbilt 603-185, Mizzou atoned for an upset loss at Vanderbilt last season that proved to be the Commodores’ only SEC win of 2019 and the beginning of the end for coach Barry Odom.
And, as it happens, the start here for Drinkwitz, who sure has proven adept at navigating the instability of the times.
In this case, it came on the fourth attempt to schedule a game with Vanderbilt, rescheduled this time after Arkansas on Monday was deemed unable to play this week because of COVID.
So now MU is 4-3 and continues affirmatively answering a reality check even when this feels precious little like reality.
And installing a new program and orchestrating it to thrive in this chaos certainly bodes well for the future, conjuring the image of a black-and-white setup part of a movie popping into living color as it unfolds in earnest.
Not that this season hasn’t been meaningful in itself for Mizzou, which now has matched its most single-season SEC wins since 2014 with one fewer chance and three games to go in this all-conference 10-game format.
Even as COVID has disrupted the traditional timeline of implementing a new system, it’s also reflected nimble coaching work at an accelerated pace under duress and ever-shifting circumstances.
But in the end, what will matter most about this transitional season for MU is how well it will equip the Tigers to compete in the full measure of the Drinkwitz era.
It’s early into what all parties concerned hope will be a long and prosperous regime. But so far his resourcefulness, imagination and motivational skills appear abundant, including in this case widely posting and distributing a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story from last year headlined “Knocked Out In Nashville.” All of which has lent ample conviction to the notion this was the right hire at the right time for Mizzou and that this season could serve as a sturdy bridge to the future.
Perhaps no aspect of this team embodies all of that at once than quarterback Connor Bazelak, whose play has been both a revelation and inspiring glimpse ahead as he continues to gain experience without losing any years of eligibility on the odometer. Bazelak, who completed 30 of 37 passes for 318 yards on Saturday, now is 5-1 as a starter and appears to be in utter command of this offense.
But since he appeared in only three games last season and because of pandemic eligibility accommodations, he’ll be a redshirt freshman again next season.
“I take these as free games to continue to get experience in the offense,” he said after MU’s 17-10 victory at South Carolina last week.
One of the rare upside developments of COVID — along with an unforgettable moment from across the field on Saturday, when Fuller made her presence known on the field with a 30-yard squib kick but also as part of the team with her fresh voice in the locker room.
“I just wanted more energy on the sidelines,” she said, adding, “That’s the only way I’ve seen it work (with) everybody supporting one another.”
She knows that from experience, both in the triumph of the SEC tournament and through struggles and and injuries and setbacks in sports along the way.
“All I want to do is be a good influence to the young girls out there …,” she said, later adding, “Literally, you can do anything you set your mind to.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 3:44 PM.