Vanderbilt Football Notebook: Jack Elliott's Development, Tight Ends, Gabe Fisher

NASHVILLE—Perhaps there’s no greater indication as to how this Vanderbilt football program has evolved than Jack Elliott and his likely role as Vanderbilt heads into the final weeks of spring ball. 

Elliott is a former 3-star recruit that has come along quickly within offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s system and is engaged in what Vanderbilt is calling an open quarterback competition. The odds that Elliott beats out star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis aren’t all that high. The odds may not be high that he beats out veteran backup Blaze Berlowitz. That’s not an indictment on him, though. 

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea called Elliott a “bulldog” in a pre-spring interview with Vandy on SI, and meant it. Elliott was a consistent winner as a high schooler in Illinois and has been among Vanderbilt’s steadiest quarterbacks in the room throughout spring practice. 

“He's done a really good job up to this point,” Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck said. “That's part of the reason we wanted to make sure we went live on the quarterbacks, 'cause we knew Jack would be able to show some things that he, maybe can't show if we don't go live and he's done well when we had those live opportunities. He's still got some, areas that he's got to get better at and stuff, but we're really happy with his progress up to this point.”

In past seasons–prior to Diego Pavia’s arrival at Vanderbilt–Elliott would be more of a threat to be Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback. Now, though–barring a stellar fall camp–he’ll likely have to wait his turn before starting. 

Elliott appears to be okay with that, though. He appears to be bought in on the process and the idea that he’ll be better off for going through his first full calendar year within Vanderbilt’s system. That’s a win for this program. 

“The longer you're in one system, the more comfortable you're gonna get with all the checks that needs to be made, changing protections, getting us out of bad plays because one of the biggest things for us offensively is we always talk about minimizing negative plays,” Beck said. “And if we can minimize negative yardage plays, stay on schedule, give ourselves to be in that third and medium to third and short, all the time. Then we got a great chance for success.”