The final 12 games on the Vanderbilt schedule include nine against Top-25 teams, and five of those nine are in the Top 10. The nastiness begins with a neutral site game against 8th ranked Michigan today in New Jersey. It’s a nationally televised (Fox) homecoming for Mikayla Blakes and Justine Pissott. Then, the SEC grind begins for real, including:
at #2 South Carolina
at #16 Ole Miss
at #7 Kentucky
home vs. #13 Oklahoma
home vs.. #4 Texas
home vs. #7 Kentucky
home vs. #21 Alabama
at #20 Tennessee
Mixed in with those games are three against non-ranked teams Auburn and Florida in Nashville and at Georgia.
There are toss-ups galore in that final 12-game stretch, and it’s hard to get a grip on what the likely record will be. I’m going to guess 7-5 with this caveat: A decent team could lose all nine of those Top-25 showdowns. I think we’re better than decent. A good team could go 4-5, and that’s where I have it, but with yet another caveat: We might be better than just good, and, if so, we could sneak out with another win or two.
For the record, I think our five most likely losses are at South Carolina, at Ole Miss, at Kentucky and at Tennessee. The only home loss I foresee is Texas. So, if we go 4-5 against the ranked teams and beat the three remaining unranked teams, that puts us at 7-5 over that last 12-game stretch and a 25-5 regular-season.
I have little faith in those guesses. For instance, I have us losing in Knoxville even though I truly feel we are the better team. I think we can beat Michigan, but it’s going to be a barn burner. Can we really beat Oklahoma and Regan Beers at home? I think so, but Beers can dominate games with her size.
I could go on and on. In fact, I already have. Let’s just say it’s going to be a wild ride.