Vanderbilt’s bye week gave Clark Lea a chance to reset, but it also put the spotlight right back on the same issues that have been hanging over the Commodores: a freshman quarterback still learning on the fly and an offense that can’t find any traction on the ground.
Jared Curtis’ last outing came in the road loss to Kentucky, where Lea saw enough to call it one of the cleaner games he has gotten from the freshman this season, even with the mistakes that showed up along the way. That’s the balancing act with Curtis right now. The talent is obvious, the growth is there, but the turnovers and freshman errors keep showing up when he tries to do too much.
Lea said Monday that the progress is continuing, and he pointed to the details he wants cleaned up as Curtis keeps developing.
“With every week that Jared works, he’s getting better and there’s improvement. I’m not expecting a perfect effort from him, but if he can work from his position to protect the ball and then to eliminate the pre-snaps and the way he communicates and operates, I think that's an important improvement,” Lea said.
That’s been the story with Curtis this season: flashes of promise mixed with the kind of mistakes young quarterbacks make when they’re trying to carry too much. At times, he has pressed and forced throws, and those decisions have turned into interceptions.
But Lea’s view hasn’t changed much since before the Kentucky game. He still sees a quarterback growing into the job, and he still sees Curtis taking advantage of the space his teammates have given him to lead.
That leadership piece matters to Lea, especially with veterans like Cade McConnell and MK Young helping Curtis settle into the role. Coming out of the bye, Lea said that dynamic remains intact.
Still, the bigger problem around Curtis has been everything happening around him. Vanderbilt has not given him enough support, whether that’s up front or in the run game, and that lack of balance has made the offense far too easy to defend. When the ground game disappears, Curtis is left trying to make something happen on nearly every snap.
The numbers from Kentucky told the story. Vanderbilt managed just 15 rushing yards on 17 carries, and Sedrick Alexander and MK Young combined for only two yards on six attempts.
That kind of production leaves no room for comfort. It turns the offense one-dimensional and puts all the pressure on Curtis to deliver possession after possession.
Lea said the answer starts with finding a real identity in the rushing attack, even if it never becomes a huge-yardage unit.
“We’ve got to get to a point where we have an identity in the run game. It doesn’t need to mean that we’re running for 200 yards a week.
We did it in ‘24. It was ‘hey, how do we take pressure off the quarterback and stay on schedule offensively,” Lea said.
“Too many times that ball’s being handed off to negative yardage plays to unblocked defenders.”
That frustration has been building, and Lea made it clear the bye week was used to hammer away at the issue. He wants to call the run game with confidence, but right now the production isn’t giving him that option.
The challenge doesn’t get any easier this week. Vanderbilt heads to Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs bring a run defense that ranks No. 32 in college football in rushing yards allowed per game. For the Commodores, that means the same problem is back on the table, and it needs a fix fast.
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The final margin said plenty, but so did the way Vanderbilt got there. The Commodores shot 60% from the floor, controlled the glass 38-20 and leaned on a defense that quickly took away Bellarmines early comfort. For a team trying to set a tone in November, it was the kind of opener that leaves room for optimism and a few unanswered questions about how high this group can climb once the competition stiffens. [Read more 🡒]