Vanderbilt Among SEC Teams that Could Start true Freshman QB in 2020

Regardless of who earns the starting spot for the Vanderbilt Commodores in their 2020 season opener, it will be someone taking their first-ever snap in a Commodores uniform, and it could well be a true freshman.

There are a lot of new quarterbacks joining rosters across the Southeastern Conference or the 2020 season, but no team will have as many new faces at that position than the Vanderbilt Commodores who lost all four form a season ago and replaced them with two JUCO transfers and two true freshmen. 

Danny Clark and Jeremy Mussa join the Commodores from the JUCO ranks while Ken Seals and Michael Wright are both true freshmen with Seals already enrolled in classes and on-campus in Nashville. 

Saturday Down South recently wrote about all the new signal-callers across the conference and which teams could possibly start a true freshman at quarterback, at least in their season opener. 

Among the top five in the conference, the Commodores tandem of Seals and Wright were third. 

Obviously the author missed the fact that Allan Walters has entered the transfer portal and is leaving Vanderbilt but passed that error, the basis of the article is correct.   

Here's what they had to say about Vanderbilt, buy ignore the Walters part.  

"3. Ken Seals/Michael Wright, Vanderbilt

Again, this is about opportunity. I grouped these guys for a couple of reasons. Besides the fact that they’re next to each other in the 2020 quarterback recruiting rankings, I think their path to starting follows the same road. Deuce Wallace, Riley Neal and Mo Hasan are all gone after a disastrous 2019 season.

That means Vanderbilt’s only returning quarterback was Allan Walters, who will make up the quarterback room along with the 2 incoming freshmen, JUCO transfer Jeremy Moussa and JUCO transfer/former Kentucky quarterback Danny Clark.

In other words, yeah, who starts at quarterback in Nashville is anyone’s guess. Vanderbilt brought in Todd Fitch to take over the offense after he helped Louisiana Tech win 10 games in 2019. J’Mar Smith was the Conference-USA Player of the Year playing in an offense that threw the ball an average north of 440 times per season the past 3 years.

My guess is that Clark or Moussa will get the first crack at the starting job. The issue with Seals and Wright is that both were recruited by fired offensive coordinator Gerry Gdowski, and Fitch could prefer to have a veteran back there.

The unproven, uncertain nature of Vandy’s quarterback room, however, is about as clear a path as a freshman quarterback can have to start in the SEC."

Who were the two teams ahead of Vanderbilt at number one and two?

Tennessee and their incoming freshman, Harrison Bailey were the number two team on their list while Alabama and the nation's best incoming freshman quarterback Bryce Young took the top spot. 

Things will be interesting for sure when camps open across the conference and these battles begin.