What Clark Lea Said About Jared Curtis, Vanderbilt Football Going Against Georgia – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE — When Vanderbilt football’s SEC slate was released during the offseason, there was one game in particular that had everyone at least on the outside had circled on their calendars.
The game in question? Vanderbilt’s trip to Georgia to begin the month of October. The reason for why there has been so much interest in the game in particular is the subplot to the result that will play itself out at Sanford Stadium Saturday.
Vanderbilt five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis is going to play at the place that he decommitted from. The story has been well-documented by now. Curtis – who is a Nashville native – was originally committed to play college football at Georgia until December 2025, where Cutis flipped his commitment to play football at Vanderbilt.
If Curtis stuck with his original commitment, he would not have had the opportunity to play in this game, at least in a meaningful capacity. But Curtis is Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback and he will be playing for the entirety of Saturday’s matchup.
There is a lot that has been made of the storyline this week. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea understands why the talk of Curtis playing against Georgia is getting attention, but he insists that his quarterback is focused on doing his job this weekend.
“Anytime you’re talking about relationships in addition to just what is a normal SEC Saturday, I mean, emotions run high in general. I don’t know that Jared’s focus is anywhere other than just on his own progress,” Lea said in his Tuesday press conference. “I know that he’s frustrated coming out on the wrong side of the Auburn game and he wants to improve and he wants to be better for his team and his teammates and they want to be better for him.”
Whether that is downplaying the situation or not, it is the elephant in the room when it comes to the Commodores’ matchup this weekend. For a player to go be playing a game at the school he originally was committed to, there likely has to be some element of the game being personal deep down in a player’s mind and rightly so.
Even if Curtis were taking the game personally, he still has a job to do and that is helping his team attempt to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the recent seasons of college football, perhaps even better than Vanderbilt’s upset over No. 1 Alabama in 2024. Curtis being focused on executing rather than the outside factors is the ideal spot Lea and the coaching staff would want Curtis 
When Curtis chose Vanderbilt, he signed up to play in these types of games and experience environments like the one he will experience Saturday. But Curtis’ flip was more than just the average flipped commitment.
Curtis’ flip sent shockwaves through the college football world seeing Vanderbilt was able to score a highly-touted recruit like Curtis on its roster. Lea believes the Curtis commitment to Vanderbilt said a lot about who Curtis is as a person.
“The decision to come to Vanderbilt is a representation of the fact that he thinks for himself and he knows what he wants. I’ve been so impressed with him as a player, but honestly more so with him as a person. This guy’s got a great heart. He’s compassionate,” Lea said.
Curtis’ commitment to Vanderbilt also gave Lea a sense of positive assurance of the messaging and the impression that he and the rest of the program are pushing out to up and coming recruits.
While that reflection is nice to think about, there is no time to think about that this week as Curtis leads his team into a place that he once thought would be his home stadium. According to Lea, Curtis is focusing on how to execute the game plan as well as improve as a player for the rest of the season.
“Our focus is really on Vanderbilt. I mean, there’s going to be a lot made of that [Curtis going to Georgia] and I get. I understand it. That’s just not where our focus is right now,” Les said.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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