Lea: Vanderbilt's next QB doesn't need to match Pavia — SkimNews
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- Clark Lea told ESPN at SEC Media Days that Vanderbilt's next quarterback doesn't need to perform like Diego Pavia, who led the program to a historic 10-3 season with 3,192 passing yards, 27 passing TDs, 862 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs
- Jared Curtis, the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country, is one of four players — alongside Blaze Berlowitz, Whit Muschamp and Jack Elliott — competing for the starting job with no decision yet made
- Curtis flipped his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt, and Lea praised that no promises about a starting role were made — only competition, which Lea said makes Curtis a 'misfit' in the program's best sense
- Lea said all quarterbacks were live during spring practice to simulate game situations, and described Curtis as having 'all the makings of someone who's going to have a really great career' while stressing patience
- Lea reaffirmed his four-year-old declaration that Vanderbilt football will be the best program in the country, saying 'We're not finished' and that he wants to elevate rather than merely sustain recent success
- Junior Sherrill echoed that mindset, saying 'We're still doubted right now, even though like we had two good years,' signaling the team feels it still must prove last season was more than a Pavia-driven fluke
Why it matters: Lea is explicitly relieving his next quarterback of the burden of matching Pavia's school-record production and is instead pushing the program to 'strengthen as a team to take pressure off that position.' With the No. 1 recruit in the country in a four-way competition and no starter named, fall camp becomes the referendum on whether Vanderbilt's 10-3 breakthrough was a one-man show or a sustainable program shift.
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