Far back as the spring, here's how it has typically gone:
Vanderbilt football opens a practice with Blaze Berlowitz quarterbacking the first unit. By the end of that practice, freshman quarterback Jared Curtis will have been out there a lot with that first unit. But Berlowitz goes first.
Seems like that's how Vanderbilt wants to keep doing things.
Vanderbilt's coaches plan to start Berlowitz in the opener against Austin Peay while — and this part is important — also playing Curtis. That's according to ESPN's Pete Thamel and others who've dropped this news that seemed weighty at first glance, but isn't that significant when you think about it.
If both quarterbacks are going to play, that means the Commodores haven't made a decision yet.
It's status
quo, sounds like. For now.
Vanderbilt's program didn't introduce this news with some big internal rollout, designed to promote and sell fans on Berlowitz. It was relayed via whisper, anonymously to a national reporter and without an explanation from Clark Lea. As news circulated, the splashy headline on Vanderbilt's own website continued to be about gold jerseys being worn against Delaware, while the program sent out a showstopper of a media release about running backs on the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award watch list.
The Commodores clearly didn't intend this to be some monumental announcement.
It was news. Someone has to start. That has to get out somehow.
But I wouldn't read a ton into it being Berlowitz. Not yet. I think this is a stall tactic. I think if Vanderbilt's coaches are leaving the door open for Curtis, they are suggesting they'd still like him to quarterback this team this season.
Still, same as it has been since the spring, Curtis has to earn the right to start.
That's how Faizon Brandon, a five-star freshman rated about the same as Curtis, got the nod at Tennessee. Josh Heupel felt comfortable resolving the Vols' lengthy QB competition by standing up there and saying with conviction that Brandon had earned it.
If Lea believed he could say that about Curtis, don't you think he would've already?
Berlowitz starting against Austin Peay shouldn't be that shocking to anyone who has been paying attention (ahem) to Vanderbilt's team. And Curtis not starting the opener shouldn't be that shocking to anyone who's been paying close to attention to college football in general.
Most hyped quarterback recruits don't start right away. Most show up to campus needing — and receiving — the luxury of not being heaved into the deep end immediately.
But because this is Vanderbilt, and because Curtis is Vandy's "best recruit ever," much has been presumed here. It was presumed that of course the Commodores would play their five-star QB right away, because they never get five-stars. Their roster couldn't possibly be strong enough to where they'd be better off with some unheralded "game manager" of a quarterback, right? Even if that view of Vandy's roster has become outdated, and that quarterback is endorsed by Diego Pavia and appeared in six games during a 10-win season.
What's being overlooked here — again, because it's Vandy — is that there are a bunch of returning players who are accustomed to winning in the SEC at a rate no one thought possible. They know what was required to accomplish that. Berlowitz knows.
The hotshot freshman who's fresh off a movie set? He probably didn't.
And that's OK. It's not Curtis' fault. He's a freshman.
He's a freshman who is reportedly in line to play meaningful snaps during his first game as part of an SEC program. That's not bad. Not when you point out how Peyton Manning, who was about as cerebral and celebrated as any high school quarterback recruit ever could be, began his freshman season as the third-string quarterback at Tennessee. By the end of that season, he was starting.
It could easily go that way for Curtis at Vanderbilt. If Commodores coaches are still leaving the door open, they are holding out hope for it to go that way.
So, please, resist the meltdown, Vandy fans. It isn't time yet. Don't freak out that your QB competition has gone final, because I don't think it has.
Sounds like it has just gone into overtime.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: If Jared Curtis is still playing, Vanderbilt football hasn't settled on a QB yet | Estes
