What Clark Lea Sees Out of Delaware’s Defense and Keys for the Vanderbilt Football Offense

NASHVILLE – With all the news and talk about Vanderbilt football’s quarterback situation, it feels easy to forget that the Commodores still have an opponent to prepare for in the next 48 hours.

Vanderbilt knows it will be sending multiple quarterbacks on the field against Delaware Saturday between Blaze Berlowitz and Jared Curtis, but it still has a defense to study if the Commodores want to start off the 2026 season 2-0

Vanderbilt is still focused on the task at hand, though. The Commodores have spent time studying the three-down, three-safety defense that Delaware runs that also has a tendency to move around often and try to bring plenty of pressure.

“They’re going to have the ability – and they’ve shown this from last season, too – that they can create havoc for you,” Lea said of his initial thoughts on Delaware’s defensive structure.

It is going to be a game where Vanderbilt’s offensive line has an early season benchmark of where it is chemistry and development-wise. With plenty of pressure that Delaware’s defense likes to bring comes more players rushing the quarterback, up to four or five rushers. It will force Vanderbilt’s offensive line to grow to some extent.

But with that comes the importance of quarterback play Saturday as well. The operation of the offense is going to need to be better than Vanderbilt’s Week 1 win over Austin Peay. Both Berlowitz and Curtis are going to need to show that they know their protections and know which defenders will be coming to bring pressure.

The risk with Delaware’s defensive plan of bringing extra rushers is what happens if offenses pick up blitzes and are protecting correctly. Delaware’s defense may have done a good job against Merrimack last weekend, but the Blue Hens were ranked 116th in the FBS last season in total defense.

Delaware was susceptible to giving up plenty of points and yards during the 2025 season. Last year, Delaware’s defense surrendered 31 points per game and over 400 yards per game. So while Vanderbilt’s offensive line is going to need to focus on protecting the quarterback, the reward if it does so will more than likely be really good.

If there was ever a game on Vanderbilt’s schedule where having an aggressive approach toward throwing the ball would be smart, it would be this weekend.

“For the quarterbacks, seeing the pressures and getting us into the right check or getting us into the right play I think is important,” Lea said.

But there is also another area where Lea feels like his offense can take advantage: third down offense. Lea feels like if his offense stays on schedule, then his team will have a successful day in third down situations

Vanderbilt needs to be more efficient on third down against Delaware. In what was a sloppy game offensively for the Commodores against Austin Peay, they went just 4-for-12 on third down attempts. That is going to have to show encouraging signs of improvement given that Vanderbilt’s schedule will be getting much more difficult going forward.

If it does, Vanderbilt is going to be in a position where scoring points will become much more seamless.

In terms of the outlook of Vanderbilt’s offense going forward, the game against Delaware is much more than just a game against a Group of Six team that the Commodores should beat. It is a game where more will be learned about the trajectory of what the offense looks like going forward. And most importantly it is a game to see whether either quarterback will take the reins of the offense for the rest of the season.

Offensive execution this weekend is the underlying factor in all of it.

“I want to see game control this week. That means we’re finishing drives with touchdowns. And what they’re going to do to challenge that is that they multiple in the front and the way they create a fourth or fifth rusher. We’re going to have to be prepared for that,” Lea said.

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