Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football's 28-9 Win Over Austin Peay
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NASHVILLE—It's not quite what Vanderbilt coach and company envisioned entering Saturday night's opener, but music still blared from the locker room in the hours following Vanderbilt's 28-9 win over Austin Peay, indicating that it had avoided the disasterous outcome.
Vanderbilt football is 1-0 entering its week two matchup with Delaware and learn from a win rather than stewing in a loss and addressing its mistakes through one. Lea knows his team still has plenty to work through, though, and is set on getting better following Saturday night.
Here's a few takeaways from its opening-night performance.
That performance didn’t inspire much confidence that this is a competitive year around here
Vanderbilt won, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.
That felt like opening night in 2023, when that eventual 2-10 team’s flaws overshadowed a win. With the performance Vanderbilt turned in on Saturday, it was difficult not to have that happen again.
Vanderbilt clearly doesn’t have an immediate answer at quarterback. Its offense isn’t all that explosive. Its defense started off poorly enough to make everyone involved question whether it will be better on paper than it is in reality. That was the level of performance that makes you question how much better off the program really is relative to where it was that 2023 night.
It makes you question if that magical two-year run it just went on was repeatable.
Obviously it’s too early to declare that Vanderbilt’s run was merely due to the heroics of Diego Pavia, but Saturday planted more than a seed of doubt. That’s how damaging a performance like that was.
At least Vanderbilt won
Lea and company know that a win against an FCS team in a home opener isn’t a guarantee, so it likely won’t take this for granted despite how poorly it played. Its film sessions throughout the week will be difficult to get through, but it’s 1-0 and has all its hopes alive.
A win has never been a given around here, and Vanderbilt got one on Saturday. Time for it to celebrate for a few hours, then snap back into it and realize that Saturday wasn’t good enough.
Celebrating Saturday feels like more of a moral victory than an actual one, though.
Saturday made it look like Tim Beck will run a similar offense to Vanderbilt’s 2024 scheme
Vanderbilt set the tone Saturday with a 13 play, 61-yard drive in which it only threw the ball twice and only completed a jet sweep to Kayleb Barnett. Perhaps that was more to do with how much more physicality Vanderbilt has up front than Austin Peay, but it felt like a precursor to what its offense will look like in 2026.
Beck really didn’t unleash starting quarterback Blaze Berlowitz or five-star freshman Jared Curtis by letting them throw the ball downfield all that much. Instead, it leaned heavily on controlling the clock and trying to win by playing keepaway. It wasn’t trying to beat Austin Peay much at the second and third level as much as it was merely chipping away.
That shouldn’t be a surprise based off of Vanderbilt’s hesitancy to make a quarterback decision and it losing its biggest deep threat, but it was jarring to see how much Beck leaned into a game-control offense.
The style isn’t conducive to winning in blowout fashion and doesn’t indicate much confidence in personnel, but insulates Vanderbilt’s quarterbacks from turnovers and makes its opponents’ margin for error significantly smaller. For now, that’s the tradeoff Beck appears to be willing to take.
Blaze Berlowitz looked like he did in fall camp
Berlowitz was fine, but he didn’t show any indications of being the star of this Vanderbilt team or the long-term starter.
He didn’t push the ball downfield enough for that. He didn’t appear to have enough trust from Beck. He didn’t appear decisive enough at times. Berlowitz was fine, but he didn’t do enough to make a convincing case that he should be the guy at quarterback. He wasn’t erratic, but he left too much to be desired for a veteran quarterback against an FCS program.
Berlowitz finished with 11 competitions on 16 attempts, 149 passing yards, 45 rushing yards, and two touchdown drives. Fine, but not enough to inspire much confidence.
Vanderbilt still has a quarterback competition on its hands, and it is still unresolved despite Lea hoping to have it solved almost a month ago.
Vanderbilt’s fans made their voices heard
Here’s a summation of Vanderbilt’s fanbase’s mindset in regard to Vanderbilt’s quarterback play. Berlowitz was boo’d on Saturday. Curtis was celebrated every time he touched the field.
Curtis made an ill-advised throw on Saturday, but Vanderbilt’s fans didn’t care. They were willing to forgive anything that he did poorly and celebrate extensively anytime he did something notable. Curtis made an exceptional throw to open his Vanderbilt career, and that was all the fanbase needed to see.
Lea delivered on his promise to play Curtis on Saturday, but he didn’t satisfy the Vanderbilt fanbase. He won’t be able to do that until he starts Curtis. That was made clear on Saturday, time and time again.
As for Curtis’ performance, it was a fall-camp performance esque in which he made an NFL throw or two and looked like a freshman in other moments. He went 7-for-9 with 60 passing yards, 22 rushing yards and didn’t throw an interception.
In reality, it didn’t matter what Berlowitz or Curtis did on Saturday. Vanderbilt’s fans had their minds made up, and they will continue to moving forward.
The resounding positive was Vanderbilt’s second-half defense
Austin Peay didn’t score in the second half and didn’t go for more than 10 yards in any second-half drive. It ended two drives worse off than it started.
For as bad as Vanderbilt’s defense was on the first drive of the game, it made up for it down the stretch. It was a true shutdown defense for the last seven drives of the game. That came against Austin Peay’s offense–which is solid for an FCS offense–but Vanderbilt’s performance still says something about it.
The buzz entering Saturday was that this is Vanderbilt’s best defense in the Lea era, and it appears as if there’s reason to believe that coming out of Saturday night. Vanderbilt recorded five sacks, five tackles for loss and four QB hurries.
At least Vanderbilt can hang its hat on that coming out of Saturday night.
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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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