Johnson chooses redshirt freshman as his starting quarterback

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson, waiting longer than he wanted, finally named a redshirt freshman Monday as his starting quarterback for the Commodores&#39; season opener against Georgia Tech. <br> <br> Johnson had wanted to choose between Jay Cutler and junior Benji Walker last week, but the quarterbacks are so close that he and his coaches didn&#39;t make the decision until Monday morning. He called it a very tough choice at his first weekly news conference. <br> <br> ``The easy thing probably to do was to pick Benji because he was older,&#39;&#39; Johnson said. ``We think they are close, but that there are a couple of things that Jay does just a little bit better and we&#39;re going to try to take advantage of those.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The 6-foot-4 Cutler from Santa Claus, Ind., has a better arm for some of the throws that Johnson wants his quarterback to make. But as much as Johnson wants to settle on one quarterback, he also plans to play Walker, who at least has some experience in a college game. <br> <br> The 6-4 Walker was 2-of-6 for 48 yards last season and ran seven times for 65 yards in four games. <br> <br> Both Walker and Cutler are mobile and can run the option that Johnson will use at times. <br> <br> ``Benji will be going into the game, and it won&#39;t be in a situation where Jay is not performing well. He has to be ready and he has to know the game plan and Benji Walker will be a very good player for us this year. We&#39;ll have to rely on him to do a lot of things this year and we feel very blessed that we have two quarterbacks,&#39;&#39; Johnson said. <br> <br> The decision had been so close that Vanderbilt released a depth chart Monday with ``or&#39;&#39; between Cutler and Walker. That also is the case at fullback between Matthew Tant and Bara Cola and at six other positions. <br> <br> Johnson planned a kicking competition at practice Monday afternoon to choose between Greg Johnson, a freshman who already has the punter job, and Chuck Folino for place-kicker. <br> <br> The Commodores couldn&#39;t have found a much tougher opener for Johnson&#39;s debut since leaving Furman to move up to Division I-AA. Even though Vanderbilt hasn&#39;t played Georgia Tech since 1967, the Yellow Jackets handed the Commodores an 83-0 loss in 1917 that remains the school&#39;s worst. <br> <br> Vanderbilt is 9-10 against Georgia Tech in Atlanta and hasn&#39;t beaten the Yellow Jackets in the last 10 games in the series dating back to 1941. The Commodores have lost their last four season openers and six of their last seven. <br> <br> None of that worries Johnson. He sees Saturday&#39;s opener as an opportunity to boost confidence quickly. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re preparing for a long, hard, tough season. We play in the best conference in the country and we need to get ready. And this first game will give us a test,&#39;&#39; he said.