2026 Vanderbilt Football Mailbag #6: Answers to Your Questions

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Letters… we get letters… we get stacks and stacks of letters…

Question from VandyFled:

How different could the game have played out if we get the tipped pass for a pick 6 and tie it up? And would a much closer score line made you feel any different about a loss?

Really what I want to know: based on this performance do you think we are closer to being a good team who’s been underperforming or a bad team that Georgia didn’t take very seriously?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: While I generally dislike tempting fate: we’re closer to a good team who’s been underperforming. Not that I think we’re good but the talent on this roster, particularly when Curtis is playing quarterback, is better than this.

Which is not to say there aren’t specific problem areas that are going to be problems all season (looking at you, offensive line.) But what I will say is that I thought this would be a 6-6 or 7-5 team before the season, and right now I think they’ll probably go 4-8 or so. Which is bad! But in the world where fans are impatient, 4-8 plays differently than it did when, I don’t know, Vanderbilt had to replace Jay Cutler and went 4-8 the next season.

And no, I don’t think that would have changed the outcome.

PatrickSawyer: I doubt it changes the result. Maybe it makes the final a TD closer. The game would have had to stay one score into the 4th quarter to feel differently than I do, which is fairly positive. No one else has really competed with Georgia. Granted, their schedule has been soft-ish. The Commodores did not really threaten to win in the second half, but they kept it close enough to be competitive and put some “well if…” scenarios in your brain. Most of those melted when Georgia scored on the opening possession of the 2nd half to make it 28-14.

My opinion is generally more optimistic than most, and I definitely think Vanderbilt has underperformed thus far. It is probably, at its best, a 7- or 8-win regular season team. The offense looked so much better this week than at any point in the season. Blaze Berlowitz was able to be more effective against one of the best teams in college football than he was against Austin Peay and Delaware. He was given a chance to run an offense to accentuate his abilities instead of trying to shelter him. He and Curtis both need to be fully given the keys when in the game. Let them play free and to their strengths. I both credit the coaches for giving Berlowitz that chance against Georgia while still being frustrated they have limited him and Curtis thus far.

Cole Sullivan: I think we are a fine, semi-competitive team that’s been slightly underperforming after getting off to an awkward start. Didn’t watch the game because I was busy taking a ride in a wee-woo-wee-woo-mobile Saturday morning, but 38-14 against no. 2 in the country after only being down 7 at the half is not bad. It’s actually pretty good. This is Georgia, no. 2 Georgia. We had a truly one-of-a-kind quarterback last year, but we don’t need one again to go 10-2: we just need a little more consistency in our performance and a slightly higher level of talent around the roster, which will come with time. This year was going to be down from last year (OBVIOUSLY) and for me it was always about getting to 6-6. Still think we can do it, would have helped a lot if we had beaten Auburn, but we just need to carry over some level of decency, some level of the foundation that Pavia gave us the opportunity to provide, over to 2027 for a shot at glory again. Sorry, what was the question? Oh yeah, definitely should have picked it. Easy one.

Andrew VU ‘04: I very much think Ugga didn’t take us seriously. The second half is what the whole game would have looked like if they wanted to slaughter us.

Question from Kslaught:

I’m somewhat down over the overall talent level of our team, especially following two strong seasons. Our secondary, O and D lines, and sometimes receivers. I would have thought that after the last couple of years we would be in better shape to support Curtis. How do you grade the coaching staff’s performance at this time?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: I don’t think the coaching staff has done a bad job this year. I do think when you swim in the stream of G6-and-below guys and P4 castoffs, there are going to be some misfires because that’s just the nature of the business; not everybody is good enough to play in the SEC.

PatrickSawyer: It feels like a team with a ton of depth but not enough difference makers, especially on defense. The WR room lacks a deep threat. It has a number of guys that I would trust to run slants, ins, outs, and other short routes consistently and with decent enough range to catch most passes. Defenses are crowding those spaces, both due to playcalling and not having anyone to truly fear going deep like a Tre Richardson or London Humphreys.

The personnel situation is probably a bit of a gamble. They are playing a lot of younger guys recruited out of high school, and it may have been a “save some money for a big splurge for 2027-28 when Curtis shows he is worth coming to play with” move. Receivers and offensive linemen should be clamoring to play with Curtis if he keeps showing the upside while rounding into a more consistent player overall. It should be a big portal haul to go with a fairly strong HS recruiting class.

Grade for this season or their tenure as coaches at Vanderbilt? For this season, I would probably say like C+? But then I realize Vanderbilt signed a Top 5 player in his recruiting class in Jared Curtis. Even if other things were questionable, that feels like a B on its own.

Cole Sullivan: I think they are trying too hard, forcing a Curtis peg in a Pavia hole sometimes, playing defense back farther than is needed. I get why, and I think all the impulses are correct, but they need to take a breath and rein it in a little. Maybe a C?

Andrew VU ‘04: I mean, we literally have the highest rated recruit in Vanderbilt history in Jared Curtis. Yeah, we need to build a team around him, especially on the offensive and defensive lines, and get him a second WR threat, but let’s not forget that for a while there, we would get really, really excited when a 3 star recruit committed to us. Overall talent’s not up to the standard of, well, last year… but it’s much higher than during the Bobby Johnson era, the first part of the Old Bald Poach era, a healthy chunk of the Derp Mason era, and Clark Lea’s first three seasons. Once we see the wave of kids that want to play with Jared Curtis and also throw generational wealth at a bunch of large offensive big beefy boys, we’ll be more than fine.

Question from Tinioril:

Was Jared actually hurt? I didn’t watch most of the Auburn game so I didn’t see any specific plays that got him banged up. Was this just a ploy to keep him alive against a very scary defense?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: I assume he was, because it would be very stupid to bench him if he wasn’t. We’re not Tennessee, whose fans spent the entire offseason hyping up a five-star freshman and now he’s benched because he played like shit against Auburn.

PatrickSawyer: I re-watched the Auburn game like I do every game. I did not notice a specific play where Curtis got hurt. There were a few hard hits but none seemed to stagger him. My guess is that Curtis could have played but would have been hobbled. Whether he was 90% or 25%, I have no idea. With how Blaze played, protecting a dinged up freshman QB in game 5 where the odds of a win were extremely slim anyway is the right move, even without the potential for a special target on Curtis for flipping to Vanderbilt from Georgia.

Cole Sullivan: Honestly, I don’t hate it? The narrative if he lost would have been horrible, I mean can you imagine the fans barking at him from the stands given how he flipped? Maybe Lea has a big brain in that big dome of his after all.

Andrew VU ‘04: His knee was hurt. I watched him try to run on it during warm ups. He had little burst. He would have been slaughtered.

Question from dore31:

Do we have a QB controversy IF this is the offensive game plan going forward? Curtis has way more tools but also had a lot of one-read-and-run against NC State and Auburn.

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: No.

PatrickSawyer: No. Curtis could do everything they asked Berlowitz to do. He could do some of it a lot better. Would he have? Maybe not, even healthy, because he is just a freshman. I hope what we saw is the coaches realizing they need to just let ‘er rip, whoever is at QB.

Cole Sullivan: He just needs to learn how to read more. Good thing he came to a nerd school like Vanderbilt.

Andrew VU ‘04: Narp.

Question from VU1970 (with addendums from other people):

Not saying this is what we should have done, but humor me:

What if, instead of recruiting from the 5-star shiny object store, we had spent the same money on building a team (OL, WRs, D-backs, etc) around Berkowitz?

The future might not have been as bright, but this season might have looked different.

Addendum #1: Follow up: Would that doom us next year? Are the struggles this year worth it for the future with the shiny 5-star?

Addendum #2: Follow up: Would that doom us next year? Are the struggles this year worth it for the future with the shiny 5-star?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: What have you seen from Blaze Berlowitz that would make you think we’d be better with him at QB, regardless of whether we spent a bunch of money on other positions?

PatrickSawyer: Curtis is what Vanderbilt needs to follow Pavia. Berlowitz is fine. If he had started most of this year and played like he did against Georgia, great. Jared Curtis is the best path for Vanderbilt to being a ranked or even CFP team in 2027-28, 2028-29, and moving forward. He will, as I said above, be a talent magnet while here. Then, if Clark Lea and company can prove they can handle the 5* elite recruit and get him drafted where his recruiting ranking indicated then you can build a long-term future on that while using the portal to load up on talent around Curtis for the next 2 or 3 seasons.

Re-allocating the extra reported $2.5M on pieces for Berlowitz could have paid short term dividends and even boosted the profile long term. It having the same impact as Curtis is exceedling unlikely.

Was Addendum #2 supposed to be parlagi asking if we can be sure the 5-star shiny object stays? I am going to pretend so. I think Curtis is going to stay. Vanderbilt is going to spend to bring talent in around him, and I think he is enjoying the “local hero” opportunity. It will take some horrible mismanagement to lose him.

Cole Sullivan: This question is so good, I texted it to my boys from college because I need them weighing in on this. I think we actually would have been better this year, running a tried and true playbook on offense with someone better than Ricardo Jones (I really didn’t like him in the NC State game) playing safety on defense. Long term? Winning more games this year would be better for us in the long term, so I think I may be convinced it would have been the better move in the long term, too. It really depends on how much we got back for Jared, basically.

Andrew VU ‘04: Clark Lea got a gift that Diego Pavia was so popular, and for some reason Nate Bargatze is insanely popular (and offered to put Curtis in a movie), and Curtis was from Nashville… why are you guys trying to act like there is any universe where you wouldn’t want a young Josh Allen to play for you for 3-4 years??? You accept this program-changing once in a lifetime event and then you convince all the boosters to buy up all the football free agents to make the team one of the tops in the SEC. It’s a professional football team operation, mind you, and we need to stop calling them student athletes, but soapbox aside, if you have Patrick Mahomes, you build around him. If you don’t, you keep trying to hit the jackpot and get yourself a Patrick Mahomes, because without one, it is really hard to win championships.

Question from JesseCuster44:

Right after Curtis was ruled out, I heard a loud whooshing sound. . Was that the sound of all the goodwill from 24-25 flying out the window, and if not, what was it?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: I can only assume this was the sound you heard.

PatrickSawyer: Huh? The 5-star QB being banged up and protected is somehow damaging to goodwill? Am I not drunk enough to understand the question?

Cole Sullivan: A what? A whoosh? Oh, yeah, the swoosh is a pretty cool logo. I wish we’d change our logo back to something that cool.

Andrew VU ‘04: (Enters Nextdoor app). Are you hearing foghorns?

Question from Kringle:

If players are getting paid to play, can they be fined for committing bonehead penalties…over and over?
What would you put in a drink if you were to name it ‘third and long’? (A ‘moral victory’ is nonalcoholic beer.)

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: A “third and long” is definitely a shot. Are we talking about a third and long for the offense or the defense? Either way, with this team, it includes absinthe.

And yes, players can be fined… according to the terms of their contract. Which really means withholding pay.

PatrickSawyer: On legal technicalities, I must remind that you Vanderbilt strictly does not pay anyone to play football for them. They are merely profiting off their own Name, Image, and Likeness along with revenue sharing since the players are the source of those revenues.

But, also, no. Even NFL players are generally only fined for personal fouls or other egregious fouls. There may be some locker room sanctions about buying meals or whatever for too many penalties, but those would never be publicly disclosed unless they become a drunken story time.

I think Cole may have nailed a Third and Long. However, I think a shot of whiskey, preferably with a connection to the number three like Jameson Triple Triple, sank and drank in a Long Island Iced Tea is also acceptable for a Thrid and Long. Of course, in this case, the “long” doubles as a play on Long Island Ice Tea and the distance you will be crawling after consuming any number of these beverages greater than one.

Cole Sullivan: A third and long… well it’s gonna be poured in a Collins glass, and it’s going to have a sprig of mint or something green and leafy because you’ve got grass to cover re gonna need something sweet after you chug down a triple of whiskey with a splash of Gatorade. Or Powerade, if that’s your thing I guess. As long as it isn’t orange, I don’t care.

Andrew VU ‘04: As I said before, college sports are done. We are all now in a European Football Champions League (or whatever the league one step down from the Premier League is… I don’t watch soccer often, and can only care so much about that documentary where Deadpool and Mac from It’s Always Sunny bought the nation of Wales). I see no reason that employees couldn’t be fined like they are in the NFL, except that we are also in a lawless nation governed by a toothless and defanged NCAA, so… (insert gif of Abe Simpson shaking his fist at a cloud).

As for the drink… hmm… let me think. A “Third and Long” to me heavily implies that 1/3 of it should be some form of alcohol, 2/3 mixer or beer, and it should be served in something long. Here are your options (also, please don’t do any of them, as you will die):

1. The Boilermaker of Death. Take a full glass of whiskey, and drop it in a Das Boot filled with three pints of a good Oktoberfest Marzen. So yeah… got to go with Ayinger.
2. A New Orleans-Style abomination in a novelty cup. No one actually knows what’s in any of these things, but they are so sugary that you will all eventually lose a foot if you keep drinking them. The novelty cup is a football and/or First Down Marker.
3. A Yard of Black and Tan. 2/3 Harp; 1/3 Guinness in one of those three foot “yard cups” you only find on St. Patrick’s Day. Okay, this one would actually be fine. Bonus: You wouldn’t die immediately.

Question from shoogymgshoogs:

Is the bench commercial almost to the level of the feet commercial? When do you think we’ll get a new one?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: What? The only commercials I see when I watch the games tell me that Gina Hinojosa wants to raise my property taxes, or possibly mandate gender reassignment surgeries on minors. Or maybe that Ken Paxton wanted to sentence a child molester to one day in jail. What commercial are you talking about here?

PatrickSawyer: The bench ad is totally fine in my book. Way less weird than the feet commercial. I do wish they would make a new one, even if the bench ad stays in circulation.

Cole Sullivan: I never liked this commercial. I complain about it every time it comes on. It doesn’t even make any sense. Why can’t we run the Rocker ad again? Or just show highlights from the Bama game, with the audio! It’s not even like that bench is actually 150 years old. Stupid.

Andrew VU ‘04: I do hate the bench commercial, but it can never approach the horrors of the feet commercial, which a part of me unironically loves (probably my feet).

Question from Ofermod:

So “moral victories” is verboten as a term. But as everyone knows, the opposite of a moral victory, a “Cadmean victory”, was named after a person. (I mean, or named after Pyrrhus, if you’re a johnny-come-lately). Also, this was a loss.

So who do we name a “loss with positive characteristics” after?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: Communism with Chinese characteristics.

PatrickSawyer: The opposite of a moral victory is obviously an amoral defeat, which is the Colorado State victory from 2021. Yes, the game was won, but it was awful, ugly, and totally unenjoyable. It also inspires exactly promise of success in the future.

The term itself does not bother me nearly as much as how it is thrown around like a trump card against anyone daring to say, “Hey, that game was a loss, but these are the positive things I saw that may indicate future success.” Anyone trying to say any loss is “as good as a win” should get stuck with the “moral victory” tag. It just sets my entire being on fire how often folks act like nothing good can be seen in a loss.

Cole Sullivan: Yeah, this is the Vandy blog alright if we’re talking “Cadmean” instead of “Pyrrhic” victories. Obviously we name a loss with positive characteristics a Bunkerian victory. The nasty Brits exerted their forces to the point of ruin against an American force who might have ceded the hill but, I mean c’mon, are we talking about college football or Premier League soccer right now? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Andrew VU ‘04: My dating life? The Andrew VU ‘04 Ethical Conquest. Am I mostly chronically single? Yes. But have I assembled a full-on Model UN of exes from every continent but Antarctica? Also yes.

Question from Dinard’oh:

What time should we start drinking on Saturday?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: Do you not wake up and start drinking?

PatrickSawyer: Same time as always? Those of us tailgating may need to bolt our chairs and coolors down though as Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaias rolls through. I just hope the storm holds off until kickoff. I can live with a game played in pourin rain and 40 MPH wind gusts. I just don’t want Mother Nature ruining a tailgate. Tents and TVs can be expensive sacrifices.

Cole Sullivan: Thursday.

Andrew VU ‘04: For the Vanderbilt fan, drinking time is a flat circle. That said, I highly encourage moderation, especially to those who were even considering imbibing any of our horrid suggestions for “The Third and Long” above. I think this weekend, I’m mostly just going to get somewhat caffeinated on home made iced tea, because I am actively aging into my “rocking chair on the porch” phase of life. It won’t be a “Dietetic Coke,” though, as VU 1970 has the market cornered on those.

*Note: Anchor of Gold alum Christian D’Andrea probably already drinks all of those things. I have witnessed him do a boot full of horse poison on multiple occasions. He even claims he does these things for his job at USA Today, though we all know he’s actually living in a padded room and we are all his imaginary friends.

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