Sarah Fuller Reveals Halftime Speech She Gave During Vanderbilt vs. Missouri

When she made history Sunday by becoming the first woman to play in a Power Five conference football game, Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller also brought championship experience to the 0-8 Commodores, fresh off of a Southeastern Conference women's soccer title. 

In a halftime speech during Sunday's 41-0 loss to Missouri, Fuller said players on the football team weren't cheering each other on, and they needed to adjust their mentality if they wanted similar success.

"If I'm going to be honest, I was a little pissed off at how quiet everybody was on the sideline," she said, per ESPN's Courtney Cronin. "We made a first down and I was the only one cheering, and I was like, 'What the heck? What's going on?'" 

Per Cronin, Fuller said coaches told her they had been wanting to share a similar message. 

"I was like, 'We need to be cheering each other on. This is how you win games, this is how you get better is by calling each other out for stuff, and I'm going to call you guys out. We need to be supporting one another. If we get a first down, if an interception happens, it's our fault. We need to be lifting each other up,'" Fuller said.

Fuller, a Texas native, got the call Monday to try out for the Commodores, who were missing players because of COVID-19. She was the only kicker the team took to Columbia, Missouri, to face the Tigers, according to ESPN's Alex Scarborough. 

Per Scarborough, Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason said the team would "love to have her" if Fuller decides she wants to stay with the team this season. 

"I think there was something bigger at work here," he said. "I've always believed that women are capable of doing fantastic things. I know we think of football as being a man's sport, and it is for the most part—99.9 percent of it is dominated by males, if not close to 100. But today she broke some history; she made some history."

Fuller, who will play soccer as a graduate transfer at North Texas next fall, said she still wants to score a field goal or an extra point. 

She became the third woman to appear in an FBS football game, after New Mexico's Katie Hnida in 2003 and Kent State's April Goss in 2015.