Georgia heavily favored over Vanderbilt, ‘poised’ freshman Jared Curtis

ATHENS — Georgia opened as a 24.5-point favorite over Vanderbilt, per the FanDuel Sportsbook, in one of the more unique games on the Bulldogs’ schedule.

Coach Kirby Smart often says he looks across the field and sees nameless, faceless opponents, but Commodores’ quarterback Jared Curtis will be hard for UGA and its fans to ignore.

Curtis, of course, was a long-term commitment to Georgia and viewed by many as the program’s quarterback of the future before changing his mind the day before signing day and choosing to stay in Nashville and play for Vanderbilt.

It would be easy to say the betting line is reflective of how fired up the Bulldogs will be to seek revenge, but that’s not how Smart’s mind works or how defenses operate.

Fact is, Georgia looks to stop every quarterback, and Curtis has proven more than once he’s everything Smart and his staff believed he could be when they invested program time and money in the effort to secure his talents in Athens.

Two Power 4 coaches have shared their take on Curtis leading into matchups with Vanderbilt, and their assessments are on point with the recruiting hype that was building at Georgia when the Bulldogs thought the 6-foot-3, 230-pound statuesque quarterback was headed to their program.

Auburn’s Alex Golesh noted that Curtis, who will enter Saturday’s 12:45 p.m. game at No. 2-ranked Georgia, completing 64.3% of his passes for 746 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions, does not resemble a true freshman.

“He looks like — I mean, obviously mature beyond his years,” Golesh said, per Yahoo.com. “To be able to go operate and for them to trust him to come into this environment and be able to go do it. I think that’s really, really special.”

Golesh’s Tigers survived Curtis’ first road start on Saturday, beating Vanderbilt 21-15 in Jordan-Hare Stadium as Curtis finished 22 of 33 for 199 yards passing along with his 46 yards rushing.

But Curtis made throws in the game that made Golesh’s film study assessment prove accurate.

“I would say as advertised — he has a really, really, really big, powerful, strong arm,” Golesh said. “What he does to be able to create is the biggest challenge. Everybody knew he could make every throw. I think at least out of high school you saw he has the ability to make every single throw, and it’s off-schedule.

“He’s got such a quick trigger. And then you add in the fact the last couple weeks you’ve seen him be able to create with his feet. He’s really, really special.”

North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren found out the hard way, as Curtis kept Vanderbilt close enough to the Wolfpack that it was able to win the game on a last-second defensive play.

“He’s really, really talented with arm strength, (and) you can see that he’s strong when he runs and he’s not just going down; he’s trying to get yards,” Doeren said leading into the game, per SI.com. “He’s competitive. I mean they had a goal line play the other day where it was a bad snap exchange, and he was able to pick the ball up, balance himself on one arm, go through contact and get into the end zone for a score.

“Pretty poised for a freshman to be able to do that. You’re in your first or second ever college football game and to have a play like that, some guys would have just fallen down to the ground to get the ball.”

Curtis was 20-of-34 passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions against North Carolina State, but he also led the Commodores with 64 yards rushing on 12 carries.

The Georgia defense is coming off a four-turnover performance, pressuring John Mateer into two fumbles that led to 14 points along with an interception.

But Mateer, who, like Curtis, has dual-threat skills, still managed to find some success throwing the football (25-of-34, 231 yards, 2 TDs) that, without the three turnovers, could have posed a problem.

“We’re growing a quarterback up, and we have a lot of excitement about him and a lot of belief in where he’s headed, and I think there’s some real positives in his play,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said after the loss at Auburn, per SI.com.