Mississippi State walks into Saturday with a quarterback situation that still isn’t settled, but Vanderbilt may be the more important problem to solve. The Commodores are headed to Starkville with their own uncertainty under center, and if AJ Swann is healthy enough to play, it adds another layer to a matchup that already has plenty of moving parts.
Swann, who started 12 games for Vanderbilt over his first two seasons before the programs split, watched the second half at Texas with his arm in a sling. Jeff Lebby still hasn’t picked a starter, and the reps are being divided among Swann, former walk-on Billy Puckett, Jaden Rashada - now on his fourth school - and freshman Brodie McWhorter.
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, who recruited Swann to Nashville, made it clear he’s paying attention to that injury situation.
“I hope AJ is healthy,” Lea said this week. “He’s someone that I built a relationship with in recruiting.”
However the Commodores sort out quarterback, Mississippi State gets a chance to stop the skid in front of a homecoming crowd. And one of the clearest places to start is on the ground, where the Bulldogs’ defense has already shown it can hold up.
Even in the 31-3 loss at Texas, Mississippi State’s defense wasn’t the issue. The Longhorns ran 32 times for only 60 yards, while the Bulldogs piled up five sacks and forced five three-and-outs. That lines up well against a Vanderbilt team that managed just 17 rushing attempts for 15 yards in its last game at Kentucky.
Senior linebacker Zakari Tillman said the focus this week is on how the team answers back.
“It’s all about how we respond as a team,” Tillman said.
The other big swing factor is Vanderbilt freshman quarterback Jared Curtis, who is a special talent but has also been living dangerously. He’s the highest-rated recruit in program history and the first Commodores quarterback to start as a true freshman since Swann. Curtis has thrown for 1,489 yards and eight touchdowns, but he also leads the SEC with eight interceptions.
That boom-or-bust profile showed up at Kentucky, where Vanderbilt leaned on him after the run game vanished and he completed 27 of 36 passes. Mississippi State’s pass rush was active against Texas, and if the Commodores again ask Curtis to shoulder everything, the Bulldogs should have a real shot at forcing mistakes.
The larger picture also points toward Mississippi State. Vanderbilt has dropped its five SEC games by an average of 18.4 points, and only the opener at Auburn was close. The Commodores haven’t beaten Mississippi State since 2004, and the Bulldogs took the last meeting in 2021.
After being beaten up by Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma and Texas, Mississippi State finally gets an opponent it can lean on. That should matter in Starkville, even with the quarterback questions still hanging over the game.
Lebby said this injury stretch has been unlike anything he has gone through.
“Haven’t lived anything like it, but we’re living it right now,” Lebby said.
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Mississippi State comes in having dropped four straight, and the Bulldogs are trying to steady themselves after losing their starting quarterback for the season. Vanderbilt is searching for the same kind of relief after five consecutive losses, which makes this matchup feel less like a celebration game and more like a chance for one side to finally interrupt a rough stretch before it gets any longer. [Read more 🡒]
Clark Lea Admits Vanderbilt Still Has Problems He Needs To Fix
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Lea has been candid that there are problems he needs to address, even if the biggest answers will have to wait. He said the focus right now has to stay on winning the next games and improving how the team performs, while more significant staff and program decisions are put off until after the season. For a Vanderbilt team still searching for consistency, the coming weeks will say plenty about whether the fixes can start showing up on the field before any larger changes arrive. [Read more 🡒]