Five Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football’s First Spring Scrimmage – si.com

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NASHVILLE – The 2026 college football season may still be about five months away, but this is the time of year where everything starts. Vanderbilt football had its first scrimmage of spring practice Saturday.
The Commodores are entering a season with a roster mixed of familiar faces from a season ago to plenty of new players on both sides of the ball that are trying to learn head coach Clark Lea’s system as well as trying to assert themselves in the mix of respective position battles.
Lea along with quarterbacks coach Trenton Kirklin and the quarterback room spoke to the media following Saturday’s scrimmage and gave their thoughts on how spring practice is going. Here are a few things that stood out in practice so far.
He is the big man on campus and the talk of the town around Nashville this season. Five-star true freshman quarterback Jared Curtis looks like a quarterback that can give defenders trouble in multiple ways.
In terms of him throwing the football, the way the ball comes out of Curtis’ hand is something that not too many quarterbacks have at the college level, especially in their first season. There is certainly an adjustment to be made for pass catchers when trying to catch a ball from Curtis.
When watching Curtis throw the ball, there is some heat to his passes that receivers have to be ready for whenever the time comes. The spiral of his throws looks crisp, accurate and look to be in the stride of his targets more times than not.
But as Lea admits, everything in terms of learning a college offense is still a new thing to Curtis. So, what Lea and the coaching staff is stressing in terms of Curtis’ development is patience.
“I think his world has shifted dramatically with respect to process and time spent and how that position needs to strengthen the other 10 on the field. I mean, we’re at a level where he won’t be able to do it on his own, and that’s a beautiful thing for him and his development. But we need to be really patient with him,” Lea said.
One of Vanderbilt’s defensive leaders is linebacker Bryan Longwell. The Lipscomb Academy alum was a major factor in last year’s defense and will almost certainly be an even bigger one this season.
Longwell looks like he has taken a step up athletically with his body and his skillset in terms of creating havoc for opponents. In fact, he has improved so much that Lea feels Longwell is perhaps the best linebacker in the SEC.
“I mean, I think he’s one the best, if not, the best in our conference. That’s how I feel about him. He’s fast, athletic. He’s gone the long, hard way as a player, 2023 was his first year and he was forced into action early. I remember talking to him after that season about how disappointed he was,” Lea said. “He finishes and wants to be a great player. He’s become such a rock in our program.”
While fans will have to wait until the fall to see if he is truly among the best in the conference, Longwell’s growth season over season has been something that is noticeable.
One of the things that was emphasized in Saturday’s press conference from everyone that talked is how “healthy” the competition has been between the four quarterbacks. It was noted that no starter has been named, nor is Lea and his staff ready to name the starter at this time.
Nonetheless, the quarterbacks seem to be learning from each other and helping each other improve on their own games and skillsets. By no means does it seem that there is any toxicity or envious feelings between the four competing for the starting job.
As the youngest quarterback in the room, Curtis has been learning from the three older guys in terms of improving on his process and how he approaches the game of football.
“He’s doing a great job of learning from the other guys, too. And kudos to them as well because they’re also doing a good job of leaning into him. Blaze, Jack and Whit are just like ‘Hey on this play, this could help you out here,’” Kirklin said. “So, it’s really healthy right now, but this is a huge help for him right now.”
This was something that may have started to get noticed a season ago when Vanderbilt had a historic 10-win season, but the size of the team just continues to look bigger and better. This is not the same type of Vanderbilt roster that was seen toward the beginning of the decade.
Of course, no starters or any depth chart has been put out. In fact, that is understandable judging by how there are going to be athletes on both sides of the ball at various positions that could go multiple deep on the depth chart whenever it becomes official.
It is not a detail that is necessarily striking at first, but it is a detail that could really manifest into success on the field, especially as each guy starts to find his role on the team.
One of the most notable things coming out of practice on Thursday was how offensive coordinator Tim Beck thought the offense had a “rough” day. Saturday, Lea talked about how he really liked how the offense responded, feeling like they won the day.
Lea noted how encouraging it was to see the offense make “explosive” plays against the defense.
“We’re feeling like defensively, we’ve been ahead of the offense here to this point. It was great. It was great to see the offense punch back today. And to see all four quarterbacks sync up with the unit. I thought that was really cool,” Lea said. “It’ll be great teaching for us defensively as well.”
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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