Jared Curtis Changes Vanderbilt Football Forever With Flipped Commitment; Column
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NASHVILLE—It’s five minutes before 6:00 AM on Vanderbilt’s Wyatt Lawn as the cast of College Gameday’s arrival is imminent and Clark Lea’s team is set to face No. 22 Missouri with a chance to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive, yet all a few students standing in the dark could think of was Jared Curtis.
Perhaps part of the gesture is an indictment on the forward-looking nature of college football, but more of it had to do with gravitas of the five-star quarterback and landing his commitment would indicate about this program. Thus, the signs those students held up had nothing to do with this current Vanderbilt team or College Gameday itself.
“We want Jared Curtis,” A posterboard with a Georgia logo slashed out in red marker was inscribed in black marker.
“Jared Curtis, stay home!” Another sign toward the back of the crowd read in thick black marker.
The Nashville Christian quarterback is as close to a megastar as there is in high school football these days. He was among North Carolina coach Bill Belichick’s first in-home visits and had a rolodex of college football’s most prominent coaches in and out of his house to compete with Belichick. Curtis felt as if he had better options than to take a chance on Belichick’s North Carolina program, the history of excellence that came along with Georgia appeared to be enough to fend off anyone.
Curtis’ offer sheet included Alabama, LSU, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, Colorado and seemingly every other power-five program in the country. Whatever the quarterback–who is ranked as the No. 1 quarterback in the class and the No. 3 overall player in the country by 247 Sports–wanted his college experience to look like, wherever he thought the lights could shine the brightest is where he could be.
He’s the type of recruit that Vanderbilt football often has to move out of the way for throughout its history. In Vanderbilt’s past, Curtis is a player that it would likely struggle to get on the phone consistently despite his Nashville roots. Not this iteration of Vanderbilt, though. Not the iteration that can give Nate Bargatze a national platform to recruit the Nashville Christian quarterback.
This Vanderbilt program and staff always loomed throughout Curtis’ recruitment and ultimately found its way into the drivers’ seat. Perhaps it didn’t have the history or the name value that the other programs recruiting Curtis did, but it had enough confidence to keep pushing the envelope regardless of the circumstances surrounding Curtis and his recruitment.
When Curtis sat in a south end zone suite at Vanderbilt’s game against Missouri and said that it was only due to his decision to support a friend who was visiting for the weekend, Lea’s staff wasn’t deterred. When Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo rolled into Nashville to watch Curtis play in the midst of Vanderbilt’s late push, Vanderbilt continued its relentless pursuit.
“They want Vanderbilt to play this certain specific role in the world, and we reject that,” Lea said in the fall. “We talk about winning here and they tell us to be quiet, retreat to our corner. We're just not gonna do that. I want a team that's assertive and playing forward and leading, aggressively, and you can't show up on Saturday and create that. That is something that has to be tangible 365 days a year.”
If the attitude hasn’t become tangible through Vanderbilt’s standout 2025 season, it firmly became such as Curtis joined in on Lea’s vision and flipped his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt.
It’s the type of the commitment that the ‘program altering’ narrative doesn’t appear to be vast enough or significant enough. Perhaps its as great of an indicator that the ‘same old Vanderbilt’ narrative is tired and outdated as there has been throughout this magical season.
Lea’s program has hosted College Gameday, has a quarterback in the Heisman Trophy race and has set nearly every program record within a 12-month span. Yet, somehow this feels more significant than any of those feats. The accomplishments of this program have led it to this point, but this one appears to be an indicator that it could continue in the post Diego Pavia era. If it can land a player like Curtis, who can't it land?
"I think Jared is the next big thing here, and so I hope to keep him here in Nashville," Pavia—who, like Corbin, has been seen in the stands at one of Curtis’ games—said. "I think he's a talent. When I watched him, his arm is crazy. Reminds me kind of (Patrick) Mahomes.”
Curtis’ star has extended to levels that few other high school players in this city have and it’s been manufactured out of a school with 798 total attendees in its K-12 program. It’s had success, but isn’t a traditional Nashville high school power. Yet Curtis has put it in the spotlight in the same way other Nashville schools have with their abundance of wealth and program infrastructure.
The Nashville Christian quarterback is transcendent enough a star to lift a program into prominence before being legally allowed to drink and has seen his stature become enough to muster recruiting buzz like this program hasn’t yet seen.
In the upper area of Vanderbilt’s newly-renovated south end zone, it’s become a tradition of sorts for a group of fans to bring towels with messages relevant to the program’s current state. Generally, the towels include messages in regard to that day’s game–one said “Wanted, Cats. Reward: Playoffs” throughout Vanderbilt’s game with Kentucky–but Curtis has become enough of a topic within this fanbase to earn a towel of his own.
Vanderbilt fans are making their pitch to blue-chip quarterback Jared Curtis at College Gameday. pic.twitter.com/xUqwls4b5t
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 25, 2025
“Hey Jared, Who ya with?” The sign said prior to Vanderbilt’s matchup with Missouri,” #VU.”
The sign appeared to be a cry of desperation at the time, but nowadays it’s reality. The quarterback has easily become the highest-rated recruit in program history and is a living symbol of Vanderbilt’s step forward.
Vanderbilt’s coaching staff being armed with enough resources and a strong enough pitch to land a player like Curtis is perhaps more significant than his commitment itself. The Nashville connection as well as the premise of a seeable path to day-one playing time certainly played a role within Curtis’ decision, but Lea’s vision being vitalized as well as Tim Beck’s quarterback-friendly system appears to be far more significant than either of those factors.
This is a symbol of the new Vanderbilt. This program is here and just permeated the national landscape of college football once with the decision that Curtis just made.
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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