Clark Lea trotted out Ken Seals for Vanderbilt’s Week 5 matchup against Mizzou and by all accounts, the backup had a pretty strong outing.

Seals struggles with consistency but can make a lot of great throws. The Commodores and Tigers went back and forth at the end of the former’s loss to Mizzou last week in Nashville.

Seals was put in the game because of an elbow injury to starter AJ Swann, who has shown flashes of being a truly strong QB at the college level.

At the SEC’s weekly teleconference Wednesday, Lea answered a questions regarding the QB dynamic moving forward: Who is the starter when Swann returns, when will Swann return, so on.

Here’s his answer:

“The word I’ve used is available, he’s been available on Saturday to play. I think it’s more along the lines, and I don’t have concerns about him reinjuring. It’s more performance through it. And I think specifically, the ability to practice at a level that — one of the things that’s been missing for us offensively is just chemistry on the field,” Lea said. “And when we’re missing reps in practice, we’re not able to build that chemistry in training. He’s a young quarterback, he’s started 11 games, he’s 19 years old and so I don’t think we can treat him like a veteran yet where he has so much game experience, those practice reps become critical, especially when we’re struggling with process and decisions with the ball.”

He continued, saying:

“…We’re monitoring that elbow and the strain there and just seeing where he is available for practice. We also recognize that Ken Seals came in and performed well in the role and also was able to handle that position with some counter-punching in the second half. So as we work to get AJ back comfortable and confident through the injury, we know we’ve got a guy we can lean on in Ken and I think it just becomes week to week at this point to see where AJ is and who gives us the best chance to win games.”

The Commodores have yet another SEC East game on the docket for this coming week, facing off against Florida after back-to-back losses to Kentucky and Mizzou.

The Commodores travel to Gainesville to take on Florida at 4 p.m. ET on SEC Network.