James Etheridge

This college football season has been unlike any other in history. Seasons have been canceled and rearranged. Rivalry games have been dropped as conferences have gone to conference-only schedules. Games have been postponed or canceled. Players have opted to forgo their final year of eligibility to prepare for the NFL draft. It has been a season both to remember and to forget.

Through it all, a bright spot occurred at the start of the second half yesterday at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. The Missouri Tigers were playing the Vanderbilt Commodores and history was made when Sarah Fuller kicked off for Vandy, making her the first woman to play in a major college football game.

Fuller is a senior goalkeeper on the Commodores’ women’s soccer team. She was called in last week after the loss of a number of players due to a COVID-19 outbreak, including the starting kicker. Her seemingly intentional squib kick didn’t go out of bounds, wasn’t returned for a touchdown and was recovered by Mizzou on their own 35-yard line.

Unfortunately, it was the only chance she got to kick the ball. Vandy is having a horrific season, having lost all eight of the games they have played. The Missouri game was a 41-0 blowout, so Fuller never had the opportunity to kick a field goal or an extra point.

Still, she had a week she undoubtedly will remember the rest of her life. Last weekend she was in goal as Vanderbilt beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship tournament. It was Vandy’s first women’s soccer victory since 1994. The events that fell into place afterward took a lot of courage not only from the Vanderbilt coaching staff but also from Fuller herself.

When a team is 0-8 and faced with limited options due to circumstances beyond their control, measures are sometimes taken that would never be considered otherwise. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt’s head coach reached out to soccer coach Darren Ambrose about Fuller. She practiced with the team during the week. “I just wanted to see how Sarah would actually work as an option,” he was quoted earlier this week. “I had her out, had a chance to look at what she can do with the football. She’s really good with the soccer ball, seems to be really good with the football.”

When it was determined Friday that she would travel with the team to Columbia and suit up, she said, “I think it’s amazing and incredible. But I’m also trying to separate that because I know this is a job I need to do and I want to help the team out and I want to do the best that I can.”

Mason made it clear that she was pressed into action out of need, not for publicity or history. Fuller said that she would be up for continuing to help the football team if needed. She believes she can refine her timing and technique with more practice. “If she wants to kick and she’s available, we’d love to have her,” Mason said.

The Commodores’ final game of the season is next Saturday against Georgia in Athens. Whether or not Fuller will be between the hedges is not yet determined. Hopefully, she will. Having already made history once, it would be great if she could do it twice by becoming the first woman to score in a major college game. Ugogirl!