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Jared Curtis, who was ranked No. 4 overall in the Class of 2026, was the first five-star prospect to sign with Vanderbilt out of high school. Denny Simmons / USA Today Network via Imagn Images
Jared Curtis thought he was going to be a Georgia Bulldog.
“He was settled, he was recruiting (others in) his class, and it was just smooth,” Peter Webb, Curtis’ agent, said recently. “And all of a sudden, Diego Pavia shows up at a game.”
Pavia, who took the sport by storm as Vanderbilt’s quarterback the past two seasons, didn’t even know who Curtis was when he attended a game at Nashville Christian School last October. But a brief meeting led to a connection between the quarterbacks and set in motion one of the most surprising flips in recruiting history when the five-star prospect spurned Georgia at the 11th hour for Vanderbilt.
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Meanwhile, the No. 1 quarterback in the class, Keisean Henderson, had a much less dramatic recruiting experience, sticking with a verbal commitment he made in May 2024 to stay home and play for Houston. His signing day ceremony was a celebration, complete with Cougar red-and-white balloons, a cardboard cutout likeness of Henderson holding up the “Cougar Paw” hand sign and Henderson himself sporting a Houston blue quarter-zip pullover.
The pair of freshmen are also in distinctly different playing situations as the 2026 season approaches. Curtis could very well be Vanderbilt’s starter this season as he navigates an open competition with returning veteran Blaze Berlowitz to be Pavia’s successor. There’s much less ambiguity in Houston, where returnee Conner Weigman — who guided the Cougars to 10 wins in 2025 — is solidified as the starter.
But the fact that the top two quarterbacks in a recruiting class both spurned blue bloods to stay with rising programs close to home is remarkable. And their respective paths represent both modern-day recruiting shifts and provide evidence that some traditional recruiting methods still matter.
Curtis might have been unknown to Pavia on that Friday night in October, but the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder had been a household name in recruiting circles for several years and was ranked as the No. 1 QB in the 2026 class at the time.
Webb, who represents quarterbacks from high school all the way to the NFL and has a client list that includes Bo Nix, Ty Simpson and Jayden Maiava, said he was blown away the first time he saw Curtis as a high school sophomore.
“I’ve never seen anyone throw a football like that, including NFL quarterbacks,” he said.
Curtis verbally committed to Georgia in March 2024 as a high school sophomore. But he decommitted seven months later, citing a desire to see other schools to make “the best, most informed decision.”
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In his next recruiting wave, Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon and South Carolina made strong impressions, but the Dawgs won out again. His recruitment, or so he thought, was over.
Grateful! 100% Committed. See y’all in Athens! pic.twitter.com/l72TjrFr7D
— Jared Curtis 2026 QB (@Jaredcurtis37) May 5, 2025
“Once he finally (committed to) Georgia, everybody felt good,” Webb said. “The family felt good. They just loved Georgia. They loved the coaches, the atmosphere, the culture, the program, the track record. Everything made sense.”
Then Pavia entered the equation.
“I’m watching this kid sling it, and I’m like, ‘Dude, does that kid have offers?’” Pavia said on the Glory Daze podcast with Johnny Manziel. Upon finding out Curtis was committed to Georgia, Pavia said, “No way, he’s got to stay at Vandy.”
The two met briefly during the game after Curtis threw a touchdown and then connected afterward, following each other on social media and exchanging phone numbers.
Although Curtis played at Nashville Christian (he’s originally from Charlotte, Tenn., roughly 40 miles west of Nashville), Vanderbilt was largely an afterthought in his recruitment. But soon after the Pavia meeting, Curtis visited Vanderbilt for a practice and met with head coach Clark Lea and offensive coordinator Tim Beck, and then later attended a game.
Pavia and the Commodores finished the season strong, winning five of their last six games to make a late, though ultimately unsuccessful push for the College Football Playoff. That Vanderbilt’s quarterback was in Heisman contention was a revelation. Curtis still felt strongly about Georgia, but the idea of joining Vanderbilt began to gain steam.
“The next thing you know, ‘College GameDay’ is here and Nate Bargatze is talking about him,” Webb said. “Theo Von is calling him. … It’s like, ‘Georgia still seems like my home, my destiny, but I’m starting to get a little more attracted (to Vanderbilt).’”
Comedian Nate Bargatze tells 5 Star QB and Georgia Commit Jared Curtis to come to Vanderbilt. pic.twitter.com/EdPWVUkEZ7
— Grant Reacts (@GrantReacts1) October 25, 2025
Pavia’s message to Curtis, according to Webb, boiled down to this: If you win a national title at Georgia, you might just be another guy. If you win at Vanderbilt, they’ll erect a statue of you.
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“He saw them winning, beating good teams, in the national television spotlight and Diego making a run for the Heisman,” Webb said. “All of that kind of came together. You could go to Vanderbilt and set your own path, and that ultimately became the thing for him.”
Still, Curtis’ decision was difficult, given how much time he had spent with Georgia coach Kirby Smart, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and the staff.
In the week leading up to the early signing period, predictions of a flip from Georgia to Vanderbilt emerged. On the day before signing day, a recruiting service reported that Curtis would sign with Vanderbilt, even though Webb said Curtis had yet to inform either staff of his final decision.
“Even on decision day, he was still struggling,” Webb said. “He could’ve broken the internet. There was a chance that he didn’t go to Vanderbilt. He really, really struggled because his family had built such an unbelievable relationship with Georgia that it wasn’t like, ‘Oh I’m going to Vanderbilt, bye, Georgia.’”
Vanderbilt’s financial investment was significant. A source briefed on Curtis’ deal called it “borderline Bryce Underwood-level,” comparing it to the four-year contract worth close to $10 million that the Michigan quarterback reportedly received upon signing in 2025.
Webb, who did not go into specifics on Curtis’ deal with Vanderbilt, said that every suitor was “extremely competitive.”
“I told him, ‘I want you to make a decision based on these seven or eight factors, and money isn’t going to be one of them,’ because I know, from my experience, the money is going to be great no matter where you pick. So make a decision on what’s best for you, and I promise you that you will be fine and there will be lots of zeroes and commas.”
On Dec. 3, the first day of the early signing period, Curtis made his commitment to the Commodores official, with a statement that alluded to his love for Georgia and the pull from Vanderbilt that he couldn’t escape.
Anchor down ⚓️ pic.twitter.com/C7lIt5XwSc
— Jared Curtis 2026 QB (@Jaredcurtis37) December 3, 2025
Webb said it was unlike any recruitment he’s witnessed and gave a lot of the credit to Pavia.
“He’s an unbelievable recruiter,” he said.
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Henderson also received early recruiting attention, but as a wide receiver, not a quarterback.
It’s understandable: That’s the position he played in his first season at Legacy School of Sport Sciences in Spring, Texas, a northern Houston suburb, and he has an ideal frame for it (6-5, 195). But Henderson wanted to play quarterback, and when he attended a Baylor camp in July 2023 before his sophomore season, the plan was for him to work out at QB for half an hour before spending the rest of the time at receiver.
“Those 30 minutes ended and I said, ‘No, no, no, this guy’s a quarterback,’” said Houston quarterbacks coach Shawn Bell, who was Baylor’s QBs coach at the time.
Bell spent the rest of that camp closely watching Henderson. He felt his contagious energy. He saw the next-level athleticism. He witnessed how effortlessly the ball came out of Henderson’s right hand and how quickly he picked things up. “Ten minutes into that first workout, I knew he was an offer guy,” Bell said.
Five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson, the No. 1 prospect in the nation, has officially signed with Houston. @KeiHenderson1 @UHCougarFB @CoachWEFritz pic.twitter.com/4zrJJh68PL
— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) December 3, 2025
After that camp concluded, Bell recalled telling him: “Keisean, don’t listen to anybody else. You’re a great athlete, but you’re a quarterback and don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
Henderson had a similar experience just a month before while camping at Tulane, where Willie Fritz, now at Houston, was the coach. Henderson also worked out at QB and “was the best kid at the camp,” according to Wes Fritz, then Tulane’s general manager. “He stuck out. Very accurate. Strong arm. Impressive all the way around. Very serious about his craft. You could sense his maturity.”
That Baylor and Tulane offered him as a quarterback, before there was substantial tape of him playing the position, mattered. So much so that when the “perfect storm” occurred — Willie Fritz leaving Tulane for Houston and hiring Bell as his quarterbacks coach in the winter of 2023 — it gave the Cougars a major leg up in Henderson’s recruitment.
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Henderson was one of the first recruits the Cougars hosted under the new coaching staff. It also helped that Fritz had a strong relationship with Henderson’s coach at Legacy: Michael Bishop, the former Kansas State quarterback whom Fritz coached at Blinn College in the mid-1990s.
Bishop, who coached Henderson all four years at Legacy and is now an offensive assistant at Houston, was intimately familiar with his pupil’s recruiting path. Bishop recalled being doubted as a quarterback and recruited to play another position. He committed to the program that believed in him as a QB, Kansas State, and won the Davey O’Brien Award and finished second in the Heisman Trophy race in 1998 and was later selected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Houston committed to Keisean as a QB when other national powers did not see Keisean as a quarterback,” said Rivals national scout Cody Bellaire, a former Power 4 scouting director. “They absolutely nailed it, because they got almost a full-year head start on every blue blood that slow-played him.”
There were brief flirtations with other schools and a planned visit to Florida State last summer. Henderson’s mother, Erica, encouraged Keisean to at least see other schools so he could make a fully informed decision.
But Keisean had other ideas. “He said, ‘Mom, I feel like (Houston) is family, and you can’t turn your back on family. I can come here, produce, grow this program and be something totally different,’” she said.
“And I was with him standing there, 100 percent.”
On June 5, 2025, roughly six months before the early signing period, Henderson canceled his official visit to Florida State. He visited Houston instead to tell the staff in person that he was locked in.
“He knew if he stepped foot on another campus for an OV — whether he was considering them or just wanted a vacation — he knew that was gonna hurt this class and this program,” Bell said. “He put all that before anything.”
After his signing ceremony, Henderson was asked what made him stick with the Cougars.
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“The loyalty,” he said. “Loyalty goes a long way for me. It’s not dollars. It’s not selling me anything big. I don’t really care for materialistic things. It’s more so the people who I’m around that goes a long way.”
As kickoff nears, both Curtis and Henderson should see the field this season, even if the volume of snaps varies. Plenty of outsiders assume Curtis will be the guy, even though Lea has remained non-committal publicly and said he’ll continue to evaluate the starting quarterback decision during preseason training camp.
Asked at SEC media days if he feels pressured to start Curtis because of his lofty recruiting status, Lea didn’t blink.
“Well, no, because the mission is winning,” Lea said, according to the Tennessean. “We have to evaluate all possibilities and put the best person on the field that’s going to help us win. … Certainly, we’re excited about Jared. We believe he has the physical tools and mental tools to be a great player in the SEC. We wouldn’t have recruited him if we didn’t feel that way.”
An opposing SEC assistant, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly evaluate another team’s player, lauded Curtis’ physical talent but wants to see how he’ll handle SEC defenses.
“Good luck with a freshman in this league,” he said. “We liked Jared. We recruited him for a little while. We couldn’t afford him, but yeah, we liked him. I think he’s really good.
“We’ll see what his mental makeup is. I think he’s going to get beat up early, and if he can weather (it), then I think he’ll be fine. … These D-lines in this league can chew you up and spit you out. If he can survive it, he’ll be better for it on the other side.”
There’s no ambiguity about Henderson’s role as the backup to Weigman. But Willie Fritz has made it clear they’re going to prepare him for anything and everything.
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“Everybody’s asking if we’re going to have a package for Keisean,” he said recently. “We’re throwing the whole package at him. He’s got to learn how to do (everything). It’s very rare you go through a season with one quarterback.”
In April, Henderson acknowledged a desire to play but praised Weigman for his mentorship and spoke like a player who understands why patience is prudent.
“I definitely want to play, but it’s a thing where he’s balling,” Henderson said of Weigman. “He’s got the hot hand, he knows the offense, he’s been here, done that. And I’m also just ready for my opportunity whenever it comes.”
What 2026 holds for each remains to be seen. Both quarterbacks are special talents who could have gone virtually anywhere but chose to stay close to home to blaze their own paths. To Henderson, it’s a sign of college football’s new era.
“Everybody thinks of the blue bloods, the big schools,” he said. “To go somewhere local and produce in a school that not many people would think of, somewhere up and coming … that’s where college football is now.”
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