NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea has always expressed confidence in every one of his players, including in his quarterback room. When the quarterback competition began in the offseason, Lea made sure to say it was a four-way competition.
Ultimately, he narrowed the competition down between Jared Curtis and Blaze Berlowitz fighting for the starting spot while Whit Muschamp and Jack Elliott fought for the No. 3 spot in the room.
Vanderbilt likely did not envision either Muschamp or Elliott being the No. 2 quarterback at any point this season. The only way that would happen would be in the case of an injury to Curtis or Berlowitz. Tuesday, Lea announced that Berlowitz is out for about a month with a broken collarbone.
With Curtis entering his second game back in the lineup after missing the Georgia game with a knee bruise injury, Muschamp and Elliott will be up next on the depth chart for the next month. The depth chart lists the backup spot as Muschamp or Elliott. So who would go into the game first if Curtis were to get hurt again this season?
“Whit would be the first in,” Lea said. “But there’s a real world where we would see both of them. And those guys are excellent. I mean, I can’t say enough good things about them.”
Both Muschamp and Elliott appeared in Vanderbilt's trip to Athens a couple of weeks ago. Elliott was in the game for one snap, where he took a snap and ran a quarterback draw on the play. Muschamp entered the game on Vanderbilt’s final drive, where he completed two passes for a total of 18 yards.
Both fared well for the Commodores in fall camp. Muschamp especially had a quietly good camp that gave the impression that he was closer to the No. 2 spot than he was being the No. 4 in the quarterback room.
Ideally, Vanderbilt would prefer to not see another Curtis injury in the coming weeks. But if that were to happen again by chance, Lea feels confident and has belief in both Muschamp and Elliott to run the offense.
“They both have the ability to go out and operate. Both represent the program, both have the confidence of their teammates, both had really good attempts for the starting job. So there’s a lot of faith and confidence in what those guys bring,” Lea said.
While both have minimal in-game experience, Muschamp and Elliott have been in the Tim Beck offense for multiple seasons. Muschamp appeared in the game against Georgia State last season, where he completed two of his three passes for 40 yards.
The one snap Elliott had against Georgia two weeks ago was his collegiate debut after not appearing in a game as a freshman in 2025. His rushing attempt against the Bulldogs went for one yard.
Since Lea believes Berlowitz will be back around a month from now, Muschamp and Elliott backing up Curtis will be a temporary thing. While Lea knows the skillsets between his three healthy quarterbacks are different, there is room for optimism for Muschamp and Elliott if they had to go in the game.
“They are different than Jared is, but they have unique skillsets that will position us well if they need to go in there,” Lea said.
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