NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt will take another significant step toward the 2021 season Saturday when the Commodores scrimmage at Vanderbilt Stadium.
Head coach Clark Lea’s “Team 1” is scheduled to be on the field for more than two hours starting at 2 p.m. And while much – if not all – the starting lineup is still yet to be determined, one position of great importance where the No. 1 job remains up for grabs is quarterback.
Ken Seals, Mike Wright and Jeremy Moussa are all vying for the right to lead the Dores onto the field Sept. 4 against East Tennessee State.
“They’ve had good days and bad days, good throws and bad throws,” Lea said. “Over the course of practice you’re going to get enough exposure to where you’re going to have some snaps that you’re really proud of and some where you made the wrong decision or the ball was elevated on you or whatever.
“I think Saturday will be a big moment for them. I think a lot will be determined through that environment.”
That trio of signal callers were all with the team in 2020. It was during that season that Seals stood out while completing 12 touchdown passes and throwing for nearly 2,000 yards.
Wright became Seals’ primary backup and saw action in seven games. He rushed for a touchdown and threw for another in a 38-35 loss at Kentucky.
Moussa didn’t see the field a season ago, but totaled 37 touchdown passes in 2019 at San Bernardino Valley College and racked up more than 7,000 yards as a high school quarterback in California.
Lea and his staff, he said, are just as concerned with the numbers as they are the intangibles from the position.
“It’s going to be about how they influence the other 10 players,” Lea said. “In a scrimmage setting you’re going to get a feel for their command for the huddle, their command of situation, their ability to lead drives to touchdowns. That’ll be ultimately what they’re measured on.
“Those guys have strong personalities, they have real strong leadership skills. We want to see who can lead the offense to be affective to convert on conversion downs, to score touchdowns in the red zone.”
Vanderbilt donned full pads Thursday and will do so again Friday evening. The team has spent the first half of every practice this week inside the David Williams Recreation and Wellness Center due to high temperatures and the threat of severe weather before finishing workouts outdoors.
As both sides of the ball have continued to become increasingly familiar with one another during these sessions, the offense has shown flashes at times of being able to move the ball down the field – oftentimes at a quick pace.
“Some of our best series are exactly that – they’re tempo stuff where we’re getting in a rhythm. We do a lot of it,” Vanderbilt offensive coordinator David Raih said. “Coach Lea put’s a huge emphasis on pushing the tempo and the volume of every practice.
“We we run our ’88s’ in the first half of practice and guys are cooking pretty good. Just getting the reps at it is helping us out.”
Vanderbilt’s defensive unit, under coordinator Jesse Minter, has stood its ground as well. That hasn’t been the easiest of task against the high-tempo Vandy offense, Seals’ ability to make strong throws down the field and Wright’s execution of run-pass-option plays that turn the sophomore into a dangerous, speedy runner on the edges.
An experienced group of wide receivers has challenged the team’s secondary play-in and play-out as well.
“I just like the control of the office. A lot of the offense is put in the quarterbacks hands,” Wright said. “We’re building a different system. It’s a system I feel comfortable in, I feel like I can play in, excel in and at the end of the day I just like our offense because it gives our guys a chance to compete. It gives guys a chance to go up and make a big play. It’s a real player-friendly offense.”
With three weeks to go until the start of the season, Lea said not to expect a starting quarterback to be named any time soon. There is plenty of time for the competition to play out – although Saturday may be a turning point for whichever quarterback is eventually the leader of the Commodore offense.
“For me it’s a matter of being honest with the team, being authentic to what has happened through our competition,” Lea said. “You can develop chemistry when you have a named starter and you kind of know who is going to be out there together, but I’m very comfortable with taking that into game week because ultimately what you want to see is the competition through.”
Saturday’s scrimmage is closed to the public.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.