It’s finally here. Vanderbilt kicks off the 2026 season Saturday, September 5 at FirstBank Stadium, hosting Austin Peay at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. The Commodores enter the year off a 10-3 season and a final AP ranking of 15th, and while this one’s not going to move the needle nationally, it’s the first real look at a roster that replaced a Heisman runner-up quarterback, four offensive line starters, and its leading receiver over the offseason.
Austin Peay isn’t your average Week 1 body bag opponent, either. Jeff Faris’s Governors went 7-5 last year, beat FBS Middle Tennessee on the road, knocked off a ranked West Georgia team at home, and just missed the FCS Playoffs after a 45-44 overtime heartbreaker to Tarleton State. Faris got rewarded with a contract extension through 2030 this offseason, and this Governors team returns one of the better quarterbacks in the FCS. This is a program on the rise, even if the roster gap between an SEC team and a UAC team is still significant.
The headline storyline walking into kickoff: Clark Lea has named senior Blaze Berlowitz the Week 1 starting quarterback over five-star freshman Jared Curtis, but Lea has been clear that Curtis will also play and get first-team reps once he’s inserted. It’s the first real data point in a quarterback battle that’s dominated the offseason conversation, and Saturday is when we finally get to watch it play out instead of just read about it.
Notable Players to Watch For Vanderbilt
QB Blaze Berlowitz - The senior who followed Diego Pavia over from New Mexico State gets the first crack at replacing him. Lea wants to see him protect the football, play within himself, and generate rhythm early so the offense has some continuity to build on.
QB Jared Curtis - The highest-rated recruit in program history won’t start, but he will play, and Lea says he’ll get reps with the first-team offense once he’s in the game. This is our first live look at what the five-star talent everyone’s been talking about since spring actually looks like in a real environment.
RB Sedrick Alexander - Vanderbilt’s most proven offensive weapon regardless of who’s throwing him the ball. A senior off 567 yards and 11 touchdowns a year ago, Alexander is the engine this offense leans on to keep drives moving no matter which quarterback is out there.
RAZOR Miles Capers - A sixth-year senior coming off a team-high 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, Capers is exactly the kind of experienced disruptor you want turned loose in an opener against a true freshman offensive line or a scrambling FCS quarterback.
WR Brycen Coleman - The converted tight end-turned-receiver has been a fall-camp fixture for multiple years now, and a season opener against an FCS defense is exactly the kind of game where a player like Coleman can finally cash in the role everyone’s been waiting on him to grab. Worth watching how the staff deploys him early.
Notable Players to Watch For Austin Peay
QB Chris Parson - A preseason All-American and one of the best quarterbacks in the FCS, Parson is the whole engine of this offense and the reason Austin Peay is being taken seriously as a UAC contender. He’s dual-threat, has legit arm talent, and is the type of player who can make a Week 1 SEC crowd sweat if the Governors get anything going early.
TE Jackson Head - Coming off a season with 22 catches for 303 yards and two touchdowns, Head flashed real ceiling in Austin Peay’s toughest games a year ago, including a career-high 132-yard outing against a ranked Abilene Christian defense. He’s Parson’s most trusted safety valve.
WR Jaden Robinson - One of the Governors’ key offensive playmakers and a name Austin Peay’s own beat coverage has flagged as a player to watch entering the season. If Parson is going to test an SEC secondary, Robinson is a big part of how he does it.
Keys to Success for Vanderbilt
Get a clean start from Berlowitz. The whole point of starting the veteran is rhythm and chemistry. If Berlowitz moves the offense efficiently and protects the ball early, it sets the tone for the whole night and takes the pressure off Curtis to be a hero in his first college snaps.
Establish Sedrick Alexander early and often. No matter who’s at quarterback, leaning on the run game against an FCS front is the surest way to control tempo, shorten the game, and keep both young and veteran arms out of predictable passing situations.
Make Chris Parson uncomfortable. Parson is the one player on Austin Peay’s roster who can single-handedly keep this game interesting. Miles Capers and the rest of the front seven need to get pressure home early so Parson isn’t operating on schedule against a talent-advantaged Vanderbilt defense.
Don’t play down to the level of competition. Vanderbilt’s a multiple touchdown favorite in a game it’s supposed to win comfortably, and the biggest risk isn’t Austin Peay’s talent - it’s sloppiness. Clean special teams, no untimely penalties, and no letting a game that should be over by halftime turn into a nailbiter. As Coach Lea would say, “Play Vanderbilt Football”.
Final Score Prediction
Vanderbilt’s talent gap shows up in the trenches and eventually wears Austin Peay down, but this isn’t the type of laugher some SEC openers turn into. Chris Parson is going to make a few plays and keep this competitive into the second quarter, and a rotating quarterback situation means Vanderbilt won’t have the kind of offensive rhythm that puts a game away early. Expect Berlowitz to manage the game cleanly, Curtis to flash at least one big moment in relief, and Sedrick Alexander to eventually take over on the ground in the second half.
Vanderbilt 45, Austin Peay 17
If you’ve got a number in mind for the final score or like the Governors to hang around longer than that, our partner Underdog is the place to put that opinion to work: https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/p-ttvandy
As always Commodore Nation, Anchor Down.