Offensive Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football's 11th Fall Camp Practice – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—It's been 11 days of Vanderbilt football's fall camp, and not much is surprising anymore.
The Commodores are in the back end of their fall camp schedule and took the field Tuesday morning in the fallout of its Saturday scrimmage. Monday and Tuesday were both relativley light days for Clark Lea's Vanderbilt team, but were significant nonetheless.
As Vanderbilt gets closer and closer to its September 5 opener against Austin Peay, its depth chart and major contributors appear to be more and more clear. Here's what came out of Tuesday's practice.
The two options at quarterback provide Vanderbilt with a crossroads
Besides the obvious future of the program consequences of the choice between Jared Curtis and Blaze Berlowitz, there’s also an immediate choice it has to make. 
With Curtis, Vanderbilt has a more explosive offense than it would with Berlowitz and probably has an easier path to consistently putting up 30+ points on any given day. It will hit some explosives, put pressure on the second and third levels of the defense and be more apt to play from behind. It also appears to be more mistake prone and could have a smaller playbook to operate under. 
To Berlowitz’ credit, he’s done enough to prove that he’s the safer option among Vanderbilt’s two quarterbacks–even in spite of a few bad throws on Tuesday. There’s still not enough of a sample size for Berlowitz to prove that he won’t lose Vanderbilt a game because of his mistakes, but there’s more optimism than ever. Vanderbilt’s offensive style with Berlowitz, though, would be more reminiscent of its 2024 offense than its 2025 group. 
The choice is Lea and Beck’s. 
Is it time to worry yet?
Probably not quite, but Vanderbilt’s defense has been as good as it’s been all camp over the last two days. And, Vanderbilt’s offense was as stagnant as it’s been throughout camp. 
The general rule of thumb is that defenses should be ahead of offenses early in fall camp, but Vanderbilt’s offense still has some real ground to make up and needs to start winning days at some point. 
It was a difficult day for both Vanderbilt quarterbacks, most Vanderbilt receivers and an uneventful day for its running backs. Its offensive lineman did have some solid reps that could be encouraging, though. 
The evaluation of Monday and Tuesday does come with the caveat that this is Lea’s best–and deepest–defense to date and that it may just be better than Vanderbilt’s offense.
It may be this Vanderbilt offensive lineman’s time
Vanderbilt landed Orion Irving a year ago as a depth piece, but he could find himself on the field consistently in 2026 if things go well for him. Irving looks as good as he has since he first arrived at Vanderbilt, and he knows it. 
“It’s probably the best camp I’ve had,” Irving said. “I’m just knowing my assignments, being more intelligent, my football intelligence, just my pad level has been a lot better than it was previously. I feel like I’m improving on my pass blocking every single day.”
Irving played a total of 107 snaps a year ago, and he's clearly in line for more in 2026.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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