Is Vanderbilt Football In Its Competitive Window? Two Players--And One Storyline--Will Answer That
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NASHVILLE—For a second, Clark Lea stands inside the glass walls of a room alongside its indoor practice field and admits what he doesn’t know. Lea often speaks with certainty in these types of settings. He has to in order to lead an SEC football program effectively. But, he can’t act like he’s all knowing in this moment.
Lea doesn’t know how his team’s emotions on a gameday will regulate themselves. He doesn’t know if it can avoid getting too high on itself when good things happen for it. He doesn’t know if it can bounce back when bad things happen. He doesn’t know who will step up and be a voice when Vanderbilt needs one to emerge.
But, he has faith.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys. They put a lot into this, so I trust them,” Lea said. “A mature team attacks all four quarters the same, attacks every snap the same. That’s what I expect from them, but we need to go through it together to really know.”
Well. Here’s Vanderbilt’s chance to do that.
It opens as nearly 30-point favorites in its Saturday-night opener against Austin Peay, but it’s not approaching it as a cake walk. To Vanderbilt’s credit, its captains are saying the right things. Nick Rinaldi says Vanderbilt has to approach Saturday like the national championship game. MK Young says Austin Peay will bring it every down.
Whether Vanderbilt brings the proper intensity and focus in its first game without Diego Pavia there to make sure it snaps into it is a storyline, sure, but there’s a bigger one at play that Lea hasn’t addressed as the elephant in the room.
Vanderbilt will learn as much about its quarterback play on Saturday than it has in any evaluation period up to this point. It will get closer to a long-term conclusion about its quarterback competition. It will finally have the evaluation point it’s been lacking.
The quarterback competition isn’t quite the storyline here, though. The real question that Lea has to have somewhere in his mind these days is whether either quarterback that he’s going to play on Saturday is capable enough to allow Vanderbilt to win big in 2026. He’ll finally get to see if five-star freshman Jared Curtis is a more precise decision maker in games than he is in practice. He’ll get to see if live play can help things slow down for Curtis. He’ll get to see if veteran starter Blaze Berlowitz has finally turned the corner and can effectively run Vanderbilt's offense in game.
Lea will finally see how close Vanderbilt is to having an offense that can consistently push the ball downfield rather than one that has to rely on controlling the time of possession. He’ll finally get a glimpse into whether he actually has a quarterback that can effectively run a game-control offense without turning it over often.
He’ll finally get to see if the edge that Berlowitz has demonstrated translates to in-game confidence and swagger in the same way Pavia’s did for the last two seasons. He’ll finally get to see what Curtis’ arm talent–which he compared to Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford’s over the summer–opens the door to some magic. He’ll start to have an idea of whether his quarterback allows 2026 to be a competitive year, of if he will limit it to being a foundational year. That’s why Lea spoke the way he did about quarterback play on Thursday. There’s no benefit to playing politics anymore. This is about what Vanderbilt can do, now, in 2026.
“In terms of the outcome we want to organize the offense, we want effective operation, we want to score points,” Lea said bluntly. “How we go about that with each guy can look a little different, subtly, but the goal is to outscore the opponent, and the quarterback position is important in organizing the offense to do that.”
Lea declared long ago that no Vanderbilt quarterback in 2026 should be held to the same standard that Pavia was in 2025, but they don’t have to be Pavia for this Vanderbilt team to make a push for everything it’s set out for.
This Vanderbilt roster is perhaps the most talented team of Lea’s tenure, with the caveat that the upper echelon of it isn’t as impressive as previous teams. He does have the 34th most experienced offense in the country and the fourth-most experienced defense in the country. Lea also told Vandy on SI over the summer that this Vanderbilt team is his deepest to date.
But, will it matter?
That’s up to Berlowitz and Curtis. What they do Saturday against an FCS opponent won’t determine the course of Vanderbilt’s season, but Saturday will be as significant a moment as they’ve been thrusted into in their respective careers. They don't have to be Pavia, but they have to look like they have a path to leading a program to a winning season. Whether that can happen isn't all that decipherable.
This is their chance to prove that they belong, and that Vanderbilt belongs.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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