Vanderbilt football, as promised, played both quarterbacks, Jared Curtis and Blaze Berlowitz, in its season opener against Austin Peay, a 28-9 victory Sept. 5 at FirstBank Stadium.
The Commodores (1-0) gave both players a shot, just as they had promised. Berlowitz went 11-for-16 passing for 149 yards and ran 11 times for 45 yards and one touchdown. Curtis went 7-for-9 passing for 60 yards and ran three times for 22 yards.
Berlowitz led two touchdown drives and two field goal drives, with a third touchdown scoring on a punt return. The offense did not score on any of Curtis' three drives.
Neither quarterback got sacked or committed a turnover.
The offense looked different between the quarterbacks, and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea admitted as such.
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you it was the same offense," he said. "I think you saw a little more tempo with Jared, and a little more spread out, and let him sling it a little bit. With Blaze, we looked a little more like we traditionally looked, like we looked at the beginning of last season and certainly in 2024. I think both guys played well."
Many of Berlowitz's passing yards were non-traditional yardage, including on jet sweep-style plays, which Lea said he considers to be run plays. Berlowitz often threw short passes, letting the receivers do the rest by racking up yards after the catch. Berlowitz had three pass plays of at least 20 yards, but of the 78 total yards gained on those plays, 40 of them came after the catch.
The run game with Berlowitz on the field included a number of creative concepts with "eye candy" formations and motion, as well as designed quarterback runs. He was often hesitant to throw on third down and opted to run instead, to mixed results.
"Definitely our vision," running back Sedrick Alexander said. "The running backs getting the ball, doing a lot of trickery. Just motioning a lot."
With Curtis in the game, there was much less emphasis on the run game. While he was accurate throwing the ball — one of his two incompletions hit the receiver in the chest but was dropped — he wasn't always able to convert the short yardage situations as well as Berlowitz did. Some of that may have been due to playcalling, as the run game under Berlowitz was effective, but it will likely factor into the evaluation of the players.
Curtis also showed the ability to be a physical runner himself. Fans at FirstBank Stadium chanted "Let's go Jared!" after he ran into an Austin Peay defender for a third-down conversion. If Curtis ends up the starter later in the season, the most effective version of the offense with him would likely involve a hybrid of his passing ability with the run plays that worked with Berlowitz.
It doesn't sound like Lea is ready to hand the reins over to one player yet. He said he would continue to play two quarterbacks for as long as it took to decide which one best aided the mission of winning.
"I think it's great that Jared got his first game experience, and it wasn't just one drive," he said. "I thought he was able to get out there and play a good amount of football and show some things that he can do, and then also reinforce some things that he needs to work on. And this is a different game, it's a different level than high school. And I'm so excited for him. Obviously, I thought Blaze was an absolute pro."
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Vanderbilt football offense looked different between Jared Curtis, Blaze Berlowitz
