What Ole Miss Head Coach Pete Golding Said About Facing Vanderbilt Football

From a question an Ole Miss reporter asked Ole Miss football head coach Pete Golding, it is abundantly clear that Golding has done his homework on Vanderbilt football’s offense.

Golding dove into Vanderbilt’s quarterback situation, mentioned Blaze Berlowitz’ time at New Mexico State and even mentioned Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s tenure as a head coach for Pittsburgh State in the 2010s.

Needless to say, Golding is making sure to the best of his ability that his defense – which did look vulnerable in the Rebels’ previous game against Florida before their bye week – does not get burned by Vanderbilt five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis or any Vanderbilt offensive players.

With Curtis’ status for Saturday not fully known, Ole Miss has done film study on both Curtis and Berlowitz. Of course, he was complimentary of Curtis.

“I mean it’s almost like two different offenses to be honest with you. Obviously Curtis is super talented. Has a big body, really live arm. I think he does a good job at his age of taking what people give him. From a scramble standpoint, once you kind of get those feet moving a little bit it’s kind of scary as well when he moves the pocket,” Golding said.

Curtis missed Vanderbilt’s game at Georgia in its 38-14 loss. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea announced Tuesday that Curtis is day-to-day with a knee bruise injury. Wednesday, Curtis was labeled as probable on the player availability report.

Golding did not stop at Curtis, though. He talked about how different Vanderbilt’s offensive scheme is when Berlowitz is in at quarterback. Berlowitz has started three games for Vanderbilt this season and helped Vanderbilt stay within striking distance of Georgia for the first half.

“When one’s [Berlowitz] in the game, you can feel the New Mexico of the reason why he came with the coordinator. It feels much more option generated,” Golding said of Vanderbilt’s offense when Berlowitz is playing quarterback. “They do a really good job formationally, very similar to Florida with multiple personnel grouping, shift motion.”

What is interesting and perhaps the safe way to go is that Golding is not just preparing for Curtis to start and play Saturday. He is preparing his defense to play against both Berlowitz and Curtis. In fact, he expects to see them both in the game.

That could mean that Ole Miss is preparing for Vanderbilt to either swap Curtis and Berlowitz in and out for at least a small proportion of the snaps or even prepare for Berlowitz to be lined up as a wide receiver when Curtis is in at quarterback. Berlowitz played two snaps at wide receiver against Auburn. Lea did not rule out the possibility of that happening again. Perhaps it does this weekend. If it does, Ole Miss feels that it will be ready for whatever Vanderbilt throws at it.

“Got to work on them both of them all week. I think we’ll see both of them in the game. No doubt. Probably see them both in the game at the same time, too, so we’ve got to do a good job and have plans for all three,” Golding said.

Considering Curtis’ probable status, it seems reasonable to think that Curtis will be the starter for Vanderbilt Saturday. If that is the case, then it is not likely Lea will swap between Curtis and Berlowitz during the game. However, that does not eliminate the possibility of Berlowitz being in the game the same time as Curtis, lined up as a wide receiver.

This weekend presents a huge opportunity for Vanderbilt. A win and the Commodores would skyrocket their chances to get to bowl eligibility. A loss would make it three in a row for them as they are left to still find three more wins the rest of the way.

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