After nearly helping lead Vanderbilt to an upset over Georgia in a relief effort Saturday, Jordan Rodgers will get the opportunity to lead the Commodores’ offense from the outset this coming weekend.
Wednesday evening, head coach James Franklin confirmed the early-week chatter and announced that Rodgers will get the start at quarterback against Army Saturday. Rodgers, who transferred to Vandy from the JUCO ranks in 2010, will replace Larry Smith, the team’s starter since the season opener.
This will be Rodgers’ first career start at this level.
“Jordan will start the game. He’s having a good week of practice and we thought he made some really good plays on Saturday,” Franklin said following practice Wednesday. “There are some things that we’ve got to get cleaned up, but they’re very correctable things.”
“It was a combination of some of the playmaking he brought. I thought how he fought, how he competed and how he broke tackles, he really gave us some momentum plays when we needed it. I think we kind of fed off that, so we’ll keep going with it and see what happens.”
Rodgers, whose brother is former Cal and current Green Bay Packers star QB Aaron Rodgers, replaced Smith early in the second quarter of the 33-28 loss following the former starter’s second interception in 10 attempts. While his passing stats were nothing to write home to brother about -- he completed just 4-of-19 passes for 47 yards and a pick -- Rodgers did rush for 80 yards on 11 carries, and the Commodores scored all 28 of their points after Smith was benched.