Vanderbilt Football: What Took so Long to Finally Start Jordan Rodgers at QB?

It's been a long time coming, but first-year Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin has finally decided to pull the plug on the Larry Smith experiment, naming Jordan Rodgers as the starting quarterback for the 3-3 Vanderbilt Commodores.

Forget that Rodgers is the younger brother of NFL superstar Aaron Rodgers, of Green Bay Packers fame.

The fact is, Smith has no business being the starting quarterback of an SEC team, even if they are Vanderbilt.

Smith has just 13 touchdown passes since 2009, and just three of those have come against an SEC opponent. You heard me right. Just three touchdown passes in two and a half seasons in conference football.

The fact that the Vanderbilt coaching staff took this long to name Rodgers the starter might be more baffling than the fact that Smith held his post for this long.

There was some speculation that Rodgers wasn't named the starter because he had a setback during spring camps.

Even if that was true, Rodgers more than proved he was ready to take over as the starter when he stepped in for Smith in the season opener against Elon. He looked light-years better than Smith during that game.

Vanderbilt may have started 3-0, earning a few solid wins over Connecticut and Ole Miss, but this team was on a one-way track to the SEC East cellar with Smith under center.

When you look over Vanderbilt's schedule, there are plenty of winnable games remaining on the schedule to secure passage to a bowl game.

Kentucky looks like one of the worst SEC teams we've seen in a while. They struggled to beat Western Kentucky earlier in the season.

Army comes to town this week. That should be a relatively easy victory—as long as Vanderbilt plays solid defense like they have most of the season.

Then you have those toss up games that could go either way. At this point you could throw Tennessee and Wake Forest in that mix.

The Vols are dealing with a host of injuries and Wake Forest hasn't beaten anyone meaningful all year despite their decent record (4-2).

What Rodgers brings to the table is an arm that Vanderbilt hasn't seen since Jay Cutler wore the black and gold.

Georgia head coach Mark Richt had praise for Rodgers, speaking after last Saturday's game (Georgia won 33-28).

"He was more elusive and he was faster than we thought he was...and he led," Richt said.

Rodgers still has one more year of eligibility on his collegiate docket, so it makes sense to prepare him to be the full-time starter next season, especially with Smith scheduled to graduate next spring.

Franklin has brought a fresh, new look to this Vanderbilt offense, but his offensive ideas won't matter without an effective signal caller.

The Commodores are still fully capable of winning six or even seven games this season with Franklin calling the plays and Rodgers executing, but they may have waited too long to make the QB switch.