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247Sports

Vanderbilt has landed a historic recruiting win as five-star quarterback Jared Curtis flipped to the Commodores from Georgia, 247Sports' Tom Loy reports. Curtis, the No. 3 player in the Top247 rankings, becomes by far the best recruit in program history. 

The Nashville native was recruited by nearly every program in the country and committed to Georgia in May over a bevy of offers. However, Vanderbilt's breakout season was hard to ignore for the star, who preps at Nashville Christian. 

Earlier in the day, Curtis took to social media to express his frustration at his decision leaking early to the media. But later in the day on Tuesday, Curtis confirmed his commitment to Vanderbilt. 

"This morning I was really disappointed to see some media put it out there that I flipped from Georgia to Vandy," Curtis said as part of a statement posted to social media. "I actually hadn't told anyone my final decision, not even my parents or agent. I wanted to talk to the coaches from both staffs after school and practice were over, and have one last heart to heart with my family before making an announcement. Never had a chance and that was really disappointing.

I haven't said much the past couple months, obviously there's been a lot going on, but I just wanted to control what I could on the field and focus on winning another chip with my boys. And that's what we've been preparing to do on Thursday.

I do love Georgia, I love the coaches and players there. They have been so good to me and my family. I know they would do everything to help me be successful. They have been the best program in the country for a reason. The past year it's where I wanted to be and definitely where my parents have wanted me to go. That's part of what makes this so hard. You try to make everyone who has been good to you and done so much for you happy, and when you can't it sucks. But I gotta walk my path that feels right in my heart, at the end of the day this has to be my decision.

Being here in Nashville and seeing what Vandy has been doing this season has been amazing and over the past few weeks, I felt more and more that I wanna be a part of that, to be close to home, to play in front of my family and friends and to be what I love to be, an underdog. I am excited to be a Dore and excited to be part of building something here at home with Coach Lea."

Now, Curtis is next in line to replace star quarterback Diego Pavia. The Commodores posted a breakout 10-win season in 2025, putting themselves on the edge of the College Football Playoff. Pavia is the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. 

As a junior, Curtis exploded for 2,830 yards, 40 touchdowns and three interceptions with 18 rushing scores. Ironically, 247Sports Director of Scouting Andrew Ivins compares Curtis to Vanderbilt legend Jay Cutler. In a scouting report, Ivins noted that Curtis could be a candidate to start as a true freshman; that could work perfectly for Vanderbilt as the Commodores lose star quarterback Diego Pavia to graduation. 

"Gifted quarterback prospect with the arm, size, creativity and swagger to emerge as a high-level distributor for a College Football Playoff contender," Ivins wrote. "Can paint all different corners of the field as he generates easy torque with a rapid and upper-body heavy release. Likes to operate from a sturdy base, but is more than capable of serving up accurate off-platform tosses with his balance."