The Jared Curtis era is beginning for Vanderbilt football.
Curtis, the five-star freshman who is the highest-ranked recruit to ever commit to the Commodores, was announced by coach Clark Lea to be the starter when Vanderbilt (2-0) hosts NC State (1-1) on Sept. 19 (11:45 a.m., SEC Network).
Curtis will become the 10th true freshman to start a game at quarterback for Vanderbilt since freshmen became eligible to play varsity in 1972. He joins Mike Wright (1975), John Gromos (1985), Tim Richardson (1985), Kenny Simon (1993), David Wallace (1998), Wade Freebeck (2014), Kyle Shurmur (2015), Ken Seals (2020) and AJ Swann (2022).
Faizon Brandon at Tennessee this season is also starting as a five-star true freshman. DJ Lagway started seven games for Florida
in 2024.
Here's how previous freshman starting quarterbacks for Vanderbilt performed and how Curtis is built for his moment:
How previous Vanderbilt freshman quarterbacks performed
Seals holds the school's freshman passing record with 1,928 yards. The other two who surpassed 1,000 yards as true freshmen were Gromos (1,483 yards) and Swann (1,274 yards).
Wright is the only one to lead Vanderbilt to a winning season (7-4).
Curtis has a chance to etch his name into the record books. His 270 passing yards through two games would pro-rate to 1,620 across 12 games, which would fall short of Seals' record. However, Curtis did not play the majority of the season opener against Austin Peay. As the full-time starter going forward, he will have much more time to rack up passing yards.
None of Vanderbilt's true freshman quarterbacks have ever been named SEC Freshman of the Year or Freshman All-Americans. (Jay Cutler was a Freshman All-American as a redshirt.)
Why Jared Curtis is built to be Vanderbilt football's next freshman starter
This won't be the first time Curtis has started as a freshman. He was Nashville Christian School's starting quarterback as a high school freshman in 2022, and he led his school to a state championship game appearance.
Jeff Brothers, the coach of Nashville Christian, told The Tennessean that Curtis, who had joined the program in seventh grade, went into his high school years already looking like he was ready to perform, and that summer he put in the work to learn the playbook.
"The ball comes out of his hand in a very elite, speed, control, spin, manner," Brothers told The Tennessean. "It seems effortless, although he works really hard at it . . . He makes the hard things look easy, and he just has taken a natural gift and worked really hard to be a perfectionist with it."
Curtis was loyal to Nashville Christian, staying at the small school rather than pursuing playing at a larger program. Brothers said Curtis was never drawn to the "flashing lights and retweets" but rather just the ability to play ball with his friends.
Every Thursday, Brothers said, the team worked on its Hail Mary plays. Curtis shined in those drills.
"He would roll out to his left from the 50-yard line and turn a 360 in the air and throw the ball into the end zone and drop it right on the spot," Brothers said.
During one game, he remembers Curtis going back and picking up a dropped snap, landing a throw on a 30-yard out route just as easily as if he had been standing in the pocket. He similarly made something out of nothing on a play during the Sept. 12 game against Delaware, picking up a dropped snap and still running the ball in for a touchdown.
One concern with Curtis, and freshman quarterbacks in general, is that the knowledge of the playbook isn't perfect. Brothers saw Curtis grow in that aspect in high school. As an underclassman, his system was primarily remembering the snap count and just playing football. By his junior year, he began to think more about different concepts and coverages, reading defenses and decision-making. As a senior, he incorporated more pass protection and run concepts.
"The way he went to work learning the game and studying film and getting on a whiteboard drawing plays and asking questions," Brothers said, "I think just to see the mental approach that he took, knowing that his physical gift was there and recognizing that he needed to really grow in his understanding of the game and how everything fits together, I think was fun to watch develop."
For Brothers, it's only a matter of time before Curtis settles in and finds his groove playing in the SEC. After that, the sky is the limit.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Jared Curtis could become Vanderbilt football's best-ever freshman starting QB | Exclusive
