Sarah Fuller wants to keep kicking for Vanderbilt - The Boston Globe

Fuller stayed in the COVID-19 testing protocol and was attending meetings Sunday with Vanderbilt (0-8), a day after making history by kicking off to open the second half of a 41-0 loss to Missouri. Fuller executed a squib kick that traveled 30 yards before the ball was smothered by Missouri with no chance for a return.

Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason, who was fired Sunday, turned to Fuller because COVID-19 issues had left the team with few options for kicking specialists. Graduate transfer Oren Milstein had opted out before the season. The other kickers on the Vanderbilt roster are Pierson Cooke and Wes Farley. Vanderbilt is just 3 of 7 on field goals this season with Cooke’s 41-yarder at Mississippi State the longest made.

Vanderbilt does not have a men’s soccer team and the football team wanted to add an athlete already in the school’s COVID-19 protocols.

Mason said Fuller, a 6-foot-2-inch senior, was the best option and on Saturday she was the only kicker suited up for the Commodores.

On Sunday, Fuller said she spoke with special teams coordinator Devin Fitzsimmons about staying with the team and he was in favor of it. Fuller said her longest field goal in practice last week was 38 yards, and she believes she can improve with more reps.

“I asked for some film on some NFL kickers that are comparable to how I kick so I can refine that,” Fuller said.

Vanderbilt visits Georgia (6-2) on Saturday, and school officials are hoping to reschedule a final home game against Tennessee that had been postponed.

Vanderbilt fired Mason after losing the first eight games of his seventh season, and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch will serve as the interim coach.

“While this was a difficult decision, but I know this change is necessary,” athletic director Candice Lee said in a statement. “We wish Derek and his entire family the best.”

At 27-55, Mason leaves as the sixth-winningest coach in program history.

Mason was hired in 2014 as Vanderbilt’s 28th coach, replacing James Franklin when he left for Penn State. Mason came to Vanderbilt after being associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Stanford. He became the first Vanderbilt coach since the 1920s to beat in-state rival Tennessee three straight seasons.

He guided the Commodores to a bowl twice in three seasons, the last clinched with a 38-13 rout of Tennessee in November 2018. Athletic director Malcolm Turner, who was on the job for barely a year, gave Mason a contract extension within his first month on the job in February 2019.

Turner gave Mason his support again late during the 2019 season, but Turner resigned in February. Lee was named the interim athletic director before Vanderbilt took off the interim title in May.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Southeastern Conference is playing only league games this season. Vanderbilt came into the season having lost four consecutive SEC games, a skid now at 12 with the Commodores at 0-8 and on the verge of the first winless season in school history.

“I take full responsibility,” Mason said following the loss to Missouri, Vanderbilt’s fifth by double digits this season.

Mason hired Fitch and a new defensive coordinator after last season. Then he had at least seven players opt out, with eight others transferring this year.

Vanderbilt became the first SEC school to have a game postponed due to not having at least 53 scholarship players available; that happened before a road trip to Missouri initially scheduled for October. The Commodores also played two other games with the number of scholarship players in the 50s.

Alabama is the unanimous No. 1 again in the Associated Press poll as the top eight teams in the rankings held steady for the fourth week in a row.

The Crimson Tide got 62 first-place votes for the second consecutive week and are followed by No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 4 Clemson.

Southeastern Conference teams Texas A&M and Florida are fifth and sixth, respectively. Unbeaten Cincinnati is seventh and undefeated BYU is eighth.

The changes in the poll came after that, with Miami inching up to No. 9 and Indiana returning to the top 10.

Oregon’s first loss of the season knocked the Ducks out of the top 10, dropping them 12 spots to No. 21.

The Crimson Tide have now been ranked for 209 consecutive AP polls, matching Florida’s run from 1990-2002 under Steve Spurrier for the third-longest streak in the history of the rankings.

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced that Florida State’s game at Duke game will not be played Saturday, but, instead, Miami will travel to Duke for an 8 p.m. kickoff. For Florida State, this will be its third consecutive game to be called off. The Seminoles’ previous games against Clemson and Virginia were postponed on game-day morning. Boston College’s game at Virginia will start at 3:30 p.m. . . . UTEP suspended football activities and called off another game after “multiple members” of the football team tested positive for COVID-19. The Miners won’t play host to Southern Miss as scheduled Friday after scrapping this weekend’s game at Rice because of the positive tests. It’s the third straight UTEP game to be called off, starting with UAB on Nov. 20 because of coronavirus issues in the UAB program. UTEP had moved the UAB game 300 miles east of El Paso to Midland, Texas, because of a significant increase of coronavirus cases in the West Texas city. The Miners last played Nov. 14 at UTSA, losing 52-21 for a third straight defeat that dropped them to 3-4. UTEP hasn’t indicated plans to reschedule any of the three games, saying the only remaining scheduled regular-season game was Dec. 12 at home against North Texas . . . Middle Tennessee is getting another home game with Conference USA adding a game with UAB visiting the Blue Raiders on Dec. 6. Middle Tennessee had to postpone its Saturday game against FAU on Friday due to COVID-19 testing and tracing issues . . . LSU receiving leader Terrace Marshall Jr. has decided to opt out for the rest of this season, leaving the Tigers without their leading receiver on the week they’re scheduled to host No. 1 Alabama. Marshall, a junior, was one of three highly regarded college players to declare for the draft Sunday with a social media post, along with Texas offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi and Florida State defensive back Asante Samuel Jr. “Since a kid, to play in the NFL and to retire my parents has been my No. 1 mission,” Marshall wrote. “After careful consideration, but with faith, I have decided to declare for the 2021 NFL draft.” Marshall has caught 48 passes this season for 731 yards and 10 touchdowns in seven games. His final catch came on LSU’s lone touchdown near the end of a 20-7 loss at Texas A&M on Saturday night. He had 10 catches for 134 yards against the Aggies. Cosmi, a fourth-year junior, also said he would forgo the rest of the season. Texas (5-3) has two games left, but it is out of the Big 12 title race. It was unclear if Samuel, a junior, would play the rest of Florida State’s season. The Seminoles have had their last two games postponed by COVID-19 issues.