Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football’s Second Spring Scrimmage

NASHVILLE – Spring football is close to coming to a finish in Nashville as Vanderbilt football has one week of spring football remaining. The Commodores finished up its fourth and penultimate week of practice with a second scrimmage Saturday.

Through four weeks of practice, chemistry has seemed to develop among all the new and old faces on the roster. Additionally, players in all position groups have started to take steps of improvement before the spring closes up.

With one week before the Black and Gold Game occurs, here are a few observations and takeaways from Saturday.

Defense Looked Much Better This Time Around

After the first scrimmage a week ago, Lea felt that his defense had led the way for most of the spring, but that the offense was more impressive in the first scrimmage. Saturday, Lea was much more impressed with the way his guys played defensively.

“I thought today we actually had them [the offense] off schedule and kept them off schedule and got to some situations where we would punt. Last week, I don’t think there was a time in the scrimmage where we would have punted the ball,” Lea said.

From an observation standpoint, the defense looked faster and played with much more energy than it did a week ago. Whether that came from a challenge from the coaching staff or if that is more of a product of increased chemistry, Vanderbilt looked more in tune and played together on defense.

One area where Lea was pleased was the stop rate the defense had as opposed to explosives given up. Lea thought the stop rate was cleaner and improved from a week ago, though the offense did have its moments.

There May be a Bit of Separation Amongst Quarterbacks

Based on observations, it seems as though there is a line of separation starting to be drawn between Jared Curtis and Blaze Berlowitz as the top two quarterbacks right now over Jack Elliott and Whit Muschamp.

Berlowitz and Curtis look to be the most in control when running the offense right now and have made the right throws for the most part. That is not a slight to Elliott or Muschamp, but its more so of a compliment to the way Berlowitz and Curtis have developed.

However, Lea does not necessarily see it that way. Rather, Lea is not ready to name a starter anytime soon and it seems unlikely that he will name a starter before the dog days of summer arrive at this time.

“I think they’ve all had moments. We’re not going to name a starter coming out of spring. We’re not, I don’t think it's close to that honestly. Summer will be an opportunity to continue to work and sort the order,” Lea said.

Lea still has faith in his quarterback room, regardless of who is one through four come the fall. Lea feels that Berlowitz’ ability to move the offense down the field has been something that has pleased him while Elliott has his full trust.

“I think Blaze Berlowitz has shown up in live segments and has proven he can move the offense and proven he can make plays and strengthen the performance of the other 10 on the field,” Lea said. “Jack Elliott has had his moments, too. I think he’s been super consistent. I’ve got a lot of trust in Jack.”

Jared Curtis Looks Composed and Calm in the Pocket

This is an observation that has been impressive for a guy that just arrived on campus in January. Five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis still has plenty of development to go, but for a player that is in the process of learning a SEC offense Curtis has not looked panicky.

It is understandable for any player that is a new face to the program to maybe look nervous and play nervous in his first spring period, but Curtis has not exhibited any of that on the field.

Curtis has looked like he is getting progressively more in command of the offense when it is his turn to move the offense down the field. Gaining the respect of the other 10 guys in the huddle is critical for every quarterback, and it seems as though Curtis has started to do just that.

When pressure is in his face, Curtis has not typically panicked, but has shown his ability to get out of the pocket and either taken off running or tried to find one of his receivers.

Defensive Pressure is Plentiful

Another element that there was no shortage of defensively on Saturday has been the pressure that defensive line has brought to each other quarterbacks, and Lea noted it in his press conference.

“It just seemed like we were a little more intentional on second down and then we were able to get pressure on the quarterback today, too. Even though I don’t love to see it, I mean, we impacted the quarterback more today in the pocket. That’s a positive thing defensively as well,” Lea said.

Vanderbilt returned a few leaders on its defense in Bryan Longwell, Martel Hight, Glenn Seabrooks III and CJ Heard while adding Brian Allen Jr. to the defensive line and Ricardo Jones to the secondary.

While there is plenty to figure out in terms of the depth chart of the defense, it feels like this Vanderbilt defense will have opportunities to apply good pressure to opponents.

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