David Pollack Names 5-Star Freshman SEC QB That Will Make an Immediate Impact – Sports Illustrated

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The Vanderbilt Commodores are arguably in the best era of the program's history. The team is coming off a 10-3 season in which they narrowly missed the College Football Playoff.
That was the first double-digit win season in program history. The year before, Vanderbilt went 7-6, which marked the first non-losing season since 2013. A big part of that rebuild was quarterback Diego Pavia.
The New Mexico State transfer threw for 5,832 yards, 49 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, while completing 65.7% of his passes. He also added 1,663 yards and 18 touchdowns. He would ultimately go undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, marking the start of a new era in Nashville.
That era would be the Jared Curtis era. Curtis was a five-star and No. 2 overall player, while also being the top quarterback in the 2026 recruiting class. He chose the Commodores after being committed to the Georgia Bulldogs.
On "See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack," the college football analyst brought up how rare it is for Vanderbilt to beat Georgia out for a quarterback, while also talking about how special Curtis has a chance of being.
"When was the last time you heard Vanderbilt University beating Georgia for a recruit?" Pollack said. "…Jared Curtis is that dude. He's got swag. He's tough, man… I think one of the big selling points of why Jared Curtis went to Vanderbilt was to play early. I don't think you go to Vanderbilt over Georgia, probably, unless you think you are going to play early."
The reality is that Curtis choosing a program like Vanderbilt over one of the nation's best in Georgia shows how the game is starting to evolve. With NIL and the transfer portal, any team has a chance to beat another for a star player.
That's not to say Vanderbilt won this battle due to NIL. There is real appeal to play for the Commodores. Clark Lea has this program on an upward trajectory. On top of that, Curtis was a local kid. He's from Nashville and went to Nashville Christian School.
So, he's seen the rise of Vanderbilt firsthand. It's likely the early playing time was a key factor in his commitment, but he also saw what was happening and said he wanted to be part of building that program into something special. It's possible he didn't want last year to be the ceiling but the new standard of the program.
If he lives up to that in his career, he won't just be a high school phenom; he could also be a Vanderbilt legend.
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Jaron Spor has nearly a decade of journalism experience, initially as a news anchor/reporter in Wichita Falls, Texas and then covering the Oklahoma Sooners for USA Today's Sooners Wire. He has written about pro and college sports for Athlon and serves as a host across the Locked On Podcast Network focusing on Mississippi State and the Tampa Bay Bucs.
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