Wiedmer: This Vols victory about more than one football game

You can justifiably argue over whether Tennessee's 42-17 win at Vanderbilt on Saturday did anything to prove Jeremy Pruitt has the coaching chops needed to succeed in the Southeastern Conference.

Yes, it was a resounding victory for Pruitt's Volunteers, on the road no less, after six straight league losses, all by double digits. And, yes, the Commodores have upset the Vols more than once in recent years, winning five of the past eight meetings heading into this one.

But this Vanderbilt squad was also playing with an interim head coach and with but 18 players available on defense, according to the SEC Network.

So Tennessee, which was given an 82% chance at victory in Nashville by ESPN before the game began, should have won. And easily, which it did.

What was impressive, however, was how the players and Pruitt handled themselves when it ended, especially how they responded to questions on the Zoom call with media members.

There was wise sophomore linebacker Henry To'o To'o, he of the nice catch on a fake punt and numerous tackles, when asked how he has dealt with a season that's been far from satisfactory for all concerned.

"Just a lesson for learning to persevere," he said. "We learned to fight. We're seeing that carry over from here on out. You can't get frustrated when you're trying to build something. Just have to put your head down and keep working."

There was Pruitt on how much he may have needed this for job security: "The losses are about me, and the wins are about the players."

You can often cringe over the grammar used by Pruitt to answer questions, but his willingness to take the blame for a season that has certainly spurred its share of coaching questions is refreshing.

There were also the responses from him and To'o To'o regarding Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller, who became the first woman to score a point in a Power Five football game by kicking not one, but two extra points, two weeks after she became the first woman to play in such a game by kicking off to start the second half of a loss at Missouri.

"I think it's awesome," Pruitt said of the goalie who helped Vanderbilt win the SEC women's soccer title this fall. "I said earlier in the week that we had a daughter this past year, and the opportunity that Sarah Fuller has probably created for other young ladies who maybe want to follow that path - she's done a fantastic job for the soccer team here at Vanderbilt, and she's obviously a winner.

"She walked out there and kicked it right through. It says a lot about her and her fortitude to be brave enough to do this."

Added To'o To'o: "Not only (what it means for) women, but people all across the country that they can do anything they set their minds to."

In a game that probably meant next to nothing excepting those who participated in it and those fans who watched, Fuller, it could be argued, was indeed the far bigger story and certainly the better one, given that Tennessee stands 3-6 with one game to play against Texas A&M next weekend and Vanderbilt falls to 0-9 before its season finale next week at Georgia.

And Fuller made it an even better story by what she said after making history a second time.

"We've all been through so much, with COVID," she said of the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to rage out of control throughout the world. "I'm part of the Vanderbilt family. I just wanted to help."

Every feel-good story helps twice as much as normal this year. We need positives. We need hope. We need to know, to return to something To'o To'o said, you can't get frustrated when you're trying to build something. You just have to keep your head down and keep working.

Or in the case of far too many Americans devastated by COVID-19, the same applies, if not more so, when you're trying to rebuild something, be it a business or a life.

So maybe the real story, the real importance of this game wasn't the final numbers on the Vanderbilt Stadium scoreboard, or as the grand wordsmith and Vanderbilt grad Grantland Rice once waxed poetic: "For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He marks not that you won or lost - But how you played the game."

Maybe the real story was the people who played in this game, the quality of their effort and their perspective.

"I'm a big believer in Christ," said Tennessee senior wideout Velus Jones Jr., the Southern Cal transfer. "Blessings come with patience."

Less than three weeks from the close of the longest, most depressing, most divisive year of our lives, may we passionately embrace the wisdom in those words and pray they're proven true soon.

Mark Wiedmer

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.