The Commodores will have a new man under center in 2026.
The Vanderbilt Commodores are 40 days from kicking off the 2026 football season to defend the first 10-win season in program history. They have a number of impactful players to replace, and the backfill for Diego Pavia is receiving the most attention. The 2-year starter and 2025 Heisman runner-up quarterbacked Vanderbilt in a way that Commodore fans have never seen.
Pavia used a combination of moxie and playmaking ability to be the driving force in turning a 2-10 (0-8 in the SEC) 2023 season into a 7-6 (3-5) 2024 and a 10-3 (6-2) 2025 where the Commodores were ranked 14th in the final CFP poll and 15th in the final AP poll, even with a disappointing bowl loss. The brash signal caller left West End holding Vanderbilt’s single season passing records for yards (3,539) and TDs (29) from 2025. He also racked up 1,663 rushing yards, which is the career mark for a Vanderbilt QB. His 5,382 career passing yards put him 6th all-time for the Dores in just 2 seasons at the helm. Another year of his 2025 production would have put him solidly ahead of Kyle Shurmur’s 8,865 career total.
He has left big shoes (only figuratively) to fill. And Vanderbilt may have an unprecedented freshman taking the helm. Or it could be Pavia’s long-time understudy. Officially, Head Coach Clark Lea has also floated two other names as being part of the competition, but it would be a massive shock if either of them were actually the starter.
When Vanderbilt hosted College GameDay for the October 25th contest against Missouri, guest picker Nate Bargatze took multiple opportunities to campaign for Jared Curtis to change his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt. Curtis was a local prospect from Nashville Christian and was ranked either as the #1 or #2 QB in the 2026 recruiting class. Rumors had been swirling that Vanderbilt was putting the full court press on Curtis to keep him in the 615. Then, on December 2nd, it happened. Curtis announced his change in commitment, and Vanderbilt had its highest rated recruit ever. Which, when the player is a Top 5 player nationally, it is setting the bar as high as it could go. For a school who had never had a Top 50 player, it was a HUGE recruiting win.
Curtis is a much more prototypical build for a QB than the 5’ 10” (and 1/8!) Pavia at 6’ 3”. He may offer some similar playmaking ability in a larger frame. For his high school career, Per MaxPreps, Curtis completed 624 of 998 passes thrown for 9,738 yards and 128 TDs. He also tacked on 2,277 yards rushing with 5 100-yard performances. He carried the ball 316 times and scored 49 TDs. He only threw 25 interceptions in 4 years with 6 as a senior and 3 as a junior.
As you would expect with a recruit ranked so high, the notes of every recruiting analyst rave about his ability. The arm talent tops the reasons to be excited with elite arm strength coupled with excellent accuracy along with a knack for the off-platform throws that Pavia often had to make facing SEC defenses. He was, even before the Vanderbilt commitment, often compared to former Commodore and NFL 1st Round Pick Jay Cutler.
The concern of starting a true freshman in the SEC is compounded by the level of competition Nashville Christian plays. The Eagles compete in Division II-A, which is the lowest classification for private schools in Tennessee. They are the largest school by enrollment at 261 students. Curtis is going from that to the SEC. It is a concern. It is not a guarantee or prediction of failure. He would get a chance to relatively ease into college football with Austin Peay then Delaware then NC State before back to back trips to Auburn and Georgia, who will surely not have any ill will towards him after the change in commitment 1 day before the early signing period opened.
Until Curtis’s decision, it was pretty clear that Blaze Berlowitz would be the starting QB in 2026 unless a splash was made in the transfer portal. He was a 3-star recruit from Rivals/On3 and was the #115 QB in the class. Berlowitz went to New Mexico State for the 2023 season then followed former NMSU Head Coach Jerry Kill and Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck to Nashville along with Pavia, Stowers, and others.
We have not seen much of Berlowitz. He went 10 of 19 for 134 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT in his true freshman season at NMSU then did not throw a pass in a game until last season. He was 9 of 17 for 131 yards and a TD. In Spring Game performances and from practice reports, Blaze has flashed the ability to make big plays while sometimes risking the ball too much. He is very athletic and is listed at 6’ 3”. With limited information from spring practices available, it does sound like he has reigned in the turnovers a bit.
Berlowitz has the advantage of playing in Beck’s system and being involved in every part of preparing for games at the SEC level with this coaching staff. He knows how this coaching staff thinks and exactly what they expect from a QB. It is hard to know what the ceiling is with him as a lower-rated recruit who has not had significant game action. He has certainly grown from where he was rated. It is just a very limited sample size with 3 passes against Charleston Southern, 2 throws at Virginia Tech, 1 at South Carolina, 5 against Georgia State, 1 against Utah State, and 5 against Kentucky. He did go 4 of 5 for 55 yards against Kentucky. He also had a 43-yard TD run against Georgia State.
Whit Muschamp is the son of current Texas Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp. His father’s lineage as a safety at Georgia from 1991 to 1994 then having 26 years of coaching experience in the SEC (3 more if you count then Big XII member Texas from 2008 to 2010) with 9 of them as head coach with a stint each at Florida and South Carolina. Whit was a 3-star recruit out of high school and is in his 3rd year on campus. He was ranked among the Top 60 QBs in the 2024 recruiting class.
The extent of Muschamp’s live action is 3 passes and a carry against Georgia State in 2025. He completed 2 of them for 40 yards while the run was for 8 yards. Whit has never really been the focal point of any QB competitions, so the media has generally glossed over him for practice reports. In the past, he has been behind both Berlowitz and Drew Dickey, who has transferred to Arkansas State for a chance to start after missing 2025 with a cardiac issue.
First, no, I am not saying Jack Elliott is a Diego Pavia clone. I am saying that he is 5’ 11.5” according to his recruiting profile with Vanderbilt listing him at 6’ exactly. He was rated as 3-star recruit in the 2025 class with position rankings varying from 20 (Rivals) to 99 (247).
Elliot did not play in 2025. Everything that I have seen from him in recruiting highlights and Spring Game appearances suggests he is a quarterback with a strong competitive drive and who does fit the Point Guard type of QB play that Pavia was so successful with in this system. Still, he is not Pavia. Diego did go from junior college to NMSU to Vanderbilt, but that is rare enough that I am not predicting anything until I see strong evidence.
Drew Cowart transferred in from Utah, likely as the staff prepared for potential Jared Curtis-related exits. Cowart was a 2-star recruit who did not play during his freshman season at Utah. The fact he has not been added to the theoretically 4-man QB competition strongly indicates Cowart seeing the field would require a cataclysmic event.
Bluntly, take Whit Muschamp and Jack Elliott out of the conversation. I do not care what Clark Lea has said about the QB Battle. Blaze Berlowitz was QB2 all of 2025 with Drew Dickey listed 3rd until he was ruled out for the season in mid-October. Neither Muschamp nor Elliott were added to the depth chart as QB3 to fill the spot Dickey vacated. They are not going to start over Berlowitz.
When it comes down to Berlowitz and Curtis, it would be a shock if Curtis is not the starter from Day 1. Again, he is the highest rated recruit in Vanderbilt history playing at the most important position on the field with no incumbent starter. No, I will not be ringing alarm bells if he is not starting Game 1 against Austin Peay, but it will be a surprise.
Berlowitz may give the Commodores their best chance to win at Auburn and Georgia, so Clark Lea and his offenseive brain trust of Jerry Kill and Tim Beck need to decide how to balance the upside of Curtis with potentially winning right now. Whatever they do cannot resemble the handling of AJ Swann in 2022 and 2023. Or Ken Seals and Mike Wright. I can support a plan for Austin Peay and Delaware where Curtis starts and Berlowitz gets every 3rd or 4th series to give Curtis time to breathe and be coached in the fire. However, the changes need to be preplanned and not reactionary to performance. Surely Kill and Beck will handle this well.
My final prediction is Curtis starting from snap one and only relinquishing control in garbage time. How effective he can be as a true freshman starter is so difficult to predict but he should provide glimpses of an electric future behind that right arm.
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