As Brock Vandagriff continues to compete with Carson Beck for the starting quarterback job, lessons he learned from his dad, Prince Avenue head coach Greg Vandagriff, continue to ring true.
"Probably some of the best advice my dad ever gave me was—and it wasn't really advice—you have to take coaching,” Brock Vandagriff said. “There were practices where I would be running around the practice field at Prince Avenue for the last 30 minutes of practice after doing something wrong, because I talked back or said something. I learned to just make sure I look my coach dead in the eye and say, 'Yes sir,' whether you like it or not.”
Fortunately, there’s been no extra running for Georgia’s potential starting quarterback this spring.
With Mike Bobo now the offensive coordinator, Vandagriff’s focus has been solely on improving his game and giving himself the best chance to be the starter when Georgia opens its season against Tennessee-Martin.
Defensive recognition remains the biggest area where Vandagriff feels he needs to grow.
“When you go with the threes or the twos, you can look out there and pretty much have a feel for what they're going to be in. Like, 'Alright, they're starting in this. It's probably going to end up in this,’” he said. “When you get out there with the ones, you can look up there, you catch the ball, look back up, and it's something totally different.' Just being able to study and look at different things that help to tip or give that stuff that way. Studying film is the main thing that will help with that, and watching other opponents as well.”
If Beck has an edge over Vandagriff, it’s actual game experience. Beck served as the top backup to Stetson Bennett and was able to get into seven games, completing 26 of 35 passes for 310 yards and four touchdowns.
Vandagriff only appeared in three games, attempting two passes. However, Vandagriff does not see it as a detriment to his chances.
“With your practice reps, you’ve got to treat everything like it's a game. Whenever we go to Sanford and have the scrimmage in the stadium, those are game reps,” Vandagriff said. “You might not be getting teed off on, but that’s probably the only difference. They’re flying around out there, we’re flying around up here, and all the calls are the same, and all the signals are the same. So, you have to treat that mentally like a game. The shot clock is going to be up there, time is going to be up there; you’re playing your scrimmage and your practice just like a game.”
One edge Vandagriff does have over Beck is his ability to run the football, although the description “dual threat” has never sat very well with him.
“I don't like to see myself as a dual-threat guy like I'm going to run past these dudes, all of this,” Vandagriff said. “I feel like I’m just a pocket passer that can extend the play if need be, and hopefully I'm accurate on the run and make good decisions."
Being consistent is now his biggest key.
“Just going over my scrimmage, there’s going to be good things you like, bad things you like, and there’s a notepad of things that were bad and there’s a couple of things that were good. But whenever you are grading yourself, you have to be tough on yourself,” Vandagriff said. “That’s just something I was working on. I was watching film this morning, and just being able to put that on the practice field. There was stuff you might not have done well on Saturday, but you make sure you do well at practice and carry that forward.”
Vandagriff, who graduates after the fall semester with a degree in Communication Studies, plans on doing just that.
“At the end of spring, I’d like the coaches and my teammates to see, like hey, 'This guy is going to go to war for us, he’s going to go to battle for us,'” Vandagriff said. “Hopefully, the coaches can think this is one of the guys that we can trust, and that trust will be built and this is a guy that will be consistent.”
