How Vanderbilt OC evaluated Jared Curtis' spring football practice so far – The Tennessean

Diego Pavia is gone from the Vanderbilt football program.
Now it’s time for the 2025 Heisman Trophy runner-up to be forgotten, at least in terms of his everyday presence in the locker room, in the huddle and in general.
The 2026 season won’t be last season. This year’s team won’t be last year’s team.
The Commodores are well aware that their new quarterback, whether it’s five-star freshman Jared Curtis or Blaze Berlowitz, a transfer from New Mexico State like Pavia, or Whit Muschamp, is not their old quarterback.
“The new quarterback room, without Diego being here, it’s gonna be a little different,” running back Sedrick Alexander said March 28 after spring practice. “But I think it’s going to be a great one for this upcoming season.”
Alexander pointed to Berlowitz, who was on the team last year, as someone who has helped Curtis, the likely starter, learn his way around the playbook, around practice.
So far Curtis has looked pretty good, according to Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck.
Curtis has been throwing a lot and has had a lot thrown at him, Beck said.
“Again, he’s learning,” Beck said. “We have put a lot in the last five days; we’ve kind of added something new at each practice. And now till the end of time, it’s time to polish some things and get better into what we put in.
“But everything he’s doing is on track and on pace (for him) to be a good quarterback. He’s just to continue to learn the offense so he can perform at a comfortable level when he gets in the huddle.”
While the center and the person under center for the Commodores will be new faces, that won’t be the case behind the line.
Alexander and fellow running back Makhilyn Young expect to carry more of the leadership load − not to mention the ball − with Pavia gone, given that none of the Commodores’ quarterbacks are near the running threat he was.
And that’s more than OK with them.
“Any time we’re on the field we want to make everyone around us better, on and off the field,” Young said. “We both do a great job … a little bit of both, words and action.”
As for the ball?
“When we get that responsibility, we’ll take it,” Young said. “When the ball is in our hands, we make plays. So as much as they want to give it to us, we’ll get it.”
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.

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