Blaze Berlowitz will start at quarterback for Vanderbilt against Delaware on Sept. 12, but Clark Lea said Jared Curtis will also get into the game. The decision gives Vanderbilt a clear first option for the SEC Network matchup at FirstBank Stadium, while leaving room for Curtis to see snaps early.
That matters now because Vanderbilt football enters the game at 1-0 after a 28-9 win over Austin Peay, and Delaware arrives in the same spot. The start was not treated as a reset by Lea. He said Berlowitz had "earned the right to take the first snaps," and added, "We didn't change anything that way." Lea also made it plain that the plan is not limited to one quarterback. "We're going to play both," he said on Sept. 10, and he added that the staff would like to see Curtis "get a little more early on" in the contest. That leaves the opening sequence of plays more important than the label attached to the starter. Berlowitz gets the first shot, but Curtis is still part of the script. The setup also points back to what Lea wanted after the win over Austin Peay. He said the playcalling strayed too far from the game plan and needed to be more uniform regardless of which quarterback was in the game. This time, he said the staff would focus first on what works best against Delaware, build from the same sheet for both quarterbacks and avoid trying to reinvent anything for either one. That is the part to watch on Sept. 12. Lea has already said Vanderbilt wants to stay the course, lean on defense and special teams if needed, and keep the offense simple enough to find rhythm. What remains unanswered is how the first few drives will be divided between Berlowitz and Curtis, and whether the early snaps go far enough to show a real rotation or just a brief change of pace at 3:15 p.m. CT.
