What Kirby Smart Said About Vanderbilt Football Ahead of Saturday’s Matchup – Sports Illustrated

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At this point last season, Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart thought he would have five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis on his sidelines for the 2026 season.
Obviously, that is not the reality. Ten months ago, nearly to the day that Vanderbilt football and Curtis will take the field at Sanford Stadium Saturday, Curtis officially flipped his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt.
When the date of this weekend’s game was announced, Georgia did not think about it as much as Vanderbilt and the people in Nashville did. In three days, Curtis will lead Vanderbilt against the team he was originally committed to.
Even though Curtis is not on his roster, Smart still sees the talent Curtis possesses on film.
“Tremendous talent. He’s way better athletically than people give him credit for. I don’t know if anybody’s tackled him like with one person tackling him yet,” Smart said. “He’s strong, he’s quick, powerful. He’s got great arm talent. I mean, everything everybody has thought has been true.”
Curtis has continuously improved each week. Against NC State, he helped get Vanderbilt in a position for a miraculous comeback win despite the freshman mistake he made. Last week at Auburn, Curtis did not make the key mistake that could have taken the Commodores out of the game early on.
In the two weeks since he was handed the keys to the Vanderbilt offense, Curtis has shown maturity and growth. This week is a different animal, though. The experience Curtis gets this weekend will be valuable to his future development. But he still has to execute the offense and find a way to pull off a stunner.
Vanderbilt’s offense is not the only unit that has to do its job Saturday. The Commodores defense has to carry the improved play it had against Auburn into this weekend.
Smart has a lot of respect for Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea and the way he has built his defenses over the course of his tenure. The growth and performance Vanderbilt’s defense had last game has the attention of Smart and his coaching staff.
“They’ve got twitchy guys. They’ve always had really good defensive players in my opinion. They do a good job, they’re fundamentally sound, play really hard. He’s got a good defensive staff, but he’s also the head coach. He’s a defensive guy. He does a good job with it,” Smart said.
Vanderbilt’s defense looked more vulnerable than originally thought when the Commodores played against Delaware and NC State. Explosive plays occurred more than Lea and defensive coordinator Steve Gregory would have liked.
Against Auburn, Vanderbilt’s defense rebounded. The Commodores allowed the Auburn offense to score just 14 points. It looked like things started to click between the leaders of the defense and some of the new guys in the system. The defensive communication was noticeably better than it was in the two weeks prior.
Like Vanderbilt’s offense going against the Georgia defense, the Vanderbilt defense will have its biggest challenge yet against Georgia’s offense. 
Vanderbilt knows it is going into the game as a huge underdog but it is focusing on the internal. Regardless of the spread and who is favored in the game, Smart does not seem to be overlooking Vanderbilt’s hopes of pulling an upset.
“They’ve got a great program, a great team. I mean, arguably should have made the playoffs last year with the record they had, the teams they beat. He [Lea] does a tremendous job there and they’re really a physical football team made in the same mold with a defensive coach as us,” Smart 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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