Vanderbilt beat Georgia for the No. 3 overall recruit in America. Three games into his career, that recruit is the starting quarterback.
Clark Lea announced Tuesday that true freshman Jared Curtis will start Saturday against NC State, moving ahead of fourth-year quarterback Blaze Berlowitz.
Curtis is the highest-ranked recruit in Vanderbilt history. The 6-foot-3, 230-plus pound former five-star was the No. 2 quarterback and No. 3 overall prospect in the 2026 class per the Rivals Industry Ranking, and he flipped from Georgia to Vanderbilt on National Signing Day in December.
Then-Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia played a key role in that flip.
He earned it on the field
This is not a hype promotion. Curtis has been better than the incumbent.
Through two games Curtis has completed 21 of 31 passes for 270 yards with a passing touchdown and two rushing scores. Berlowitz, who won the preseason job, is 14-of-25 for 178 yards with a rushing touchdown.
The turning point came in a 35-26 win over Delaware. Berlowitz started, but Curtis played the majority of the game and led the win, going 14-of-22 for 210 yards and a touchdown while adding two rushing scores. He became the first Vanderbilt freshman with three touchdowns since Sept. 17, 2022.
Vanderbilt opened with a 28-9 win over Austin Peay.
The Pavia effect is real
Lea explained the recruiting pitch at SEC spring meetings, and it doubles as an explanation of how Vanderbilt got here.
“The starting point for the conversation is Diego Pavia, what he was able to accomplish, representing the V,” Lea told On3. “The way he created almost a celebrity and energy for himself in Nashville, it brought to life a college football community in Nashville that showed up to watch the fireworks, and Jared was paying attention to that.”
That is the whole thing. Vanderbilt did not out-spend Georgia. It sold a kid on the idea that he could be the main character in a city that had just discovered it likes college football.
Programs at the bottom of the SEC have spent decades being told they cannot compete for elite quarterbacks. Vanderbilt just did it, and then played the guy immediately instead of redshirting him behind a veteran.
NC State is the real test
The Commodores host NC State at 12:45 p.m. ET Saturday on SEC Network. The Wolfpack are 1-1.
After that, SEC play opens at Auburn on Sept. 26, and the schedule stops being forgiving.
Curtis has beaten an FCS team and Delaware. Saturday is the first opponent that will punish a freshman for holding the ball too long. If he handles it, Vanderbilt has a quarterback for four years and the Pavia era stops looking like a fluke.
If he struggles, Lea has a fourth-year veteran on the bench and a decision to make before Auburn.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.