Jared Curtis Was a "Must Win" for UGA Football coach Kirby Smart, and He Won

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ATHENS - We can’t know what the future holds for UGA football commit Jared Curtis. 

But Monday was a big day for Kirby Smart and his football program. Losing a player that was once committed to you to one of the few programs that has the ability to compete with you on the field and in the NIL space… that would have been a bad sign. 

But Curtis picked Georgia - citing his relationship with Kirby and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. The commitment moved Georgia up about a dozen spots in team recruiting rankings. I’m not sure why anyone would be keeping score at home right now - its not even middle may and programs like Iowa State are ranked in front of Georgia. 

But the alternative here was the bad part - it would have signaled a vibe shift in the UGA universe. Georgia fans are elite at two things - traveling to watch their team, and worrying incessantly and often unnecessarily about their team. In the years following back-to-back national titles, the comedown has been natural, but it has still been a comedown. 

Then came the emergence of an NIL market that seems to be hitting its peak. Recruiting has changed. Programs have changed. The way Kirby won two national titles - it isn’t “quite” like that out there anymore. 

You can’t just stockpile talent like Nick Saban and Kirby did so well from 2009-2022. 

Curtis was the recruit Georgia would have to pay to get. There’s nothing nefarious with that anymore, but that is the reality that’s new in this version of college football. So there was some new pressure there for Kirby. That pressure coupled with what UGA fans have seen from two signal callers tied to the Dawgs recently - Carson Beck and Dylan Raiola - drove home that this world of college football isn’t like the past... and the very recent past was very sucessful for UGA. 

Raiola decided not to go to Georgia when Beck decided he was returning for 2024. Beck didn’t return in 2025 because of $4 million in payments from Miami, and an injury that gave him time to think about his NFL future. 

Those two things underscored just how tricky things are these days - and quarterbacks have always been tricky. Although we have more and more information about quarterback recruits - it seems less and less likely that we are able to peg successful results to their recruiting ranking. 

Quinn Ewers didn’t at all have the career it seemed like he would have; Stetson Bennett didn’t, ether. Brock Vandagriff was ranked in front of J.J. McCarthy.  CJ Stroud was ranked a position behind DJ Uiagalelei. Carson Beck was ranked behind Harrison Bailey. 

Those are some pretty big misses if we are being honest. 

The truth about quarterbacks and their future is that we simply just don’t know. It is possible the scouts/analysts have no real idea what they are looking at when ranking these players (very likely); it is possible you can’t judge quarterbacks on physical ability alone considering how many other things go into the position (very, very likely); and it is possible situations matter more at quarterback than any other position because only one quarterback starts (also possible). 

In the case of Curtis (like Matthew Stafford, Aaron Murray, Zach Mettenberger, Logan Gray, JT Daniels, Jacob Eason and Carson Beck) we don’t know what we don’t know, and I wouldn’t be so certain of what we do know. 

This is the most finicky position in sports, and it is the one with the biggest spotlight. And now we’ve got the addition of the transfer portal - which means there is literally no telling from one semester to the next if a player will be on campus. 

All that said - Kirby couldn’t lose Curtis. This was about more than Curtis the player, and what he will do as a player in however many years when he plays - if he ever plays meaningful moments in Athens. This was about setting the tone right now in a recruiting world that has clearly changed. 

In the age of the transfer portal the recruiting never stops. Kirby won two of his national titles by recruiting and developing really good players. 

That part hasn’t changed.