Vanderbilt’s game against Auburn offered an unexpected sight on Saturday: Blaze Berlowitz lining up somewhere other than quarterback.
After losing the starting job, Berlowitz was used at wide receiver and was targeted on back-to-back plays by freshman quarterback Jared Curtis. One snap suggested Vanderbilt might try a trick play with Berlowitz as a passer, while the other sent him on a downfield route. The ball slipped through his hands and landed incomplete.
The broadcast said Berlowitz had spent the entire week working at wide receiver, and it noted that Vanderbilt had gotten some encouraging results from putting him there.
Berlowitz opened Vanderbilt’s first two games of the season at quarterback while battling Curtis for the job. His move to receiver does not appear to be set in stone, but there have been murmurs that Berlowitz thinks wide receiver gives him his best shot at reaching the NFL.
As of 3:35 left in the first half, Curtis had looked Berlowitz’s way more often than any other Vanderbilt receiver except Junior Sherrill.
Berlowitz is in his third season as a Vanderbilt quarterback and his fourth season with offensive coordinator Tim Beck, so he knows the system well. Curtis won the starting job by pushing the ball downfield and making the offense more dynamic against Delaware. Berlowitz lost the role after a late-first-half fumble against Delaware and a 3-for-9 passing performance.
Before the Auburn game, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said the staff still trusted Berlowitz to step in at quarterback if Curtis were unavailable. Now the program seems to be using him in a broader way, with Berlowitz warming up at quarterback alongside Curtis on Saturday while also being considered at multiple spots.
“I’ve been really impressed, this is challenging for him, too,” Lea said. “The way he’s handled himself is reflective of the kind of person that we want in our program.
He’s been a great teammate. He’s felt it all the way through.
Those who care much, feel much and I appreciate that about him. He’s stepped into his role and his responsibility and he’s done it like a pro.
He’s prepared the same way he was a week ago and the same way he was against Austin Peay and when his number is called, he’ll be ready to answer the call and that will be inevitable as the year goes on.”
Lea said that then, and Saturday’s usage of Berlowitz suggested there may have been more to read into those remarks than first met the eye.
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