Get the behind-the-scenes stories about Georgia’s newest 5-star quarterback

Curtis could have committed to UGA 136 times before Wilson committed to the Dawgs that day in Brooklyn in the midst of the Poly Prep Christmas program. He was an elf who shed a layer of clothing to reveal UGA gear and also brought out a Bulldog.

He chose the Dawgs. That was the initial news. The hope is to come back with stories from being in the middle of it all. You know, the good stuff.

Like doing a 1-on-1 interview with Curtis, with him sporting the biggest grin. Then to see it get a lot bigger when he spied his mother’s phone in the distance. Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was smiling back at him on FaceTime.

“There’s Coach Bobo right there,” Curtis pointed out.

Credit: Jeff Sentell

Credit: Jeff Sentell

Momma was really happy. Bobo was really, really happy. Curtis also validated their relationship by mentioning Georgia’s offensive coordinator by name six times during his initial post-decision news conference.

Curtis said Bobo did “an awesome job” recruiting him. Development was big.

“He’s been doing it a long time,” Curtis said of Bobo. “He’s told me he doesn’t have any desire to stop now, so I feel like he knows a lot about the game, and I feel like he’ll be able to get me to where I want to be for sure.”

The good stuff about Curtis committing to Georgia

That good stuff will include being able to share the fact that Curtis, who will likely have to wait his turn in Athens, has had to do something like that in his career.

It came when he repeated his eighth grade season. Curtis, who will be 19 in December, made the decision with his family that he needed another year to mature academically, athletically and socially.

Nashville Christian coach Jeff Brothers points to that season as a key factor in his early development.

“That wasn’t the easiest thing,” Brothers said. “He had to watch his current class go up to ninth grade and not lose touch. He also had to acclimate to a new group that he wasn’t familiar with. Forming those new relationships. But also not act like he was different, and to blend in. That wasn’t easy, but it was important for him.”

Credit: Jeff Sentell

Credit: Jeff Sentell

When Curtis returned to the field, he didn’t take playing for granted.

“I did two eighth grade years and didn’t play sports my whole second eighth grade year,” Curtis told DawgNation.

“It really was a redshirt type deal,” Brothers said. “He could practice with us. He just couldn’t play.”

When he could finally play in the fall of 2022, he did not start that first game. Brothers didn’t feel like it was right.

“I’m sure he felt like he could start and he was ready to go in there and do his thing because he’d been sitting out a year already, and this was his chance to go back and play, but he never complains,” Brothers told DawgNation last year. “He gets frustrated like we all do if things aren’t going well, like we all do, but it is not a complaining kind of angry frustration. Not selfish frustration. Just frustration about the way the team may not be performing.”

That’s just one of the stories.

There was the time when his mother knew he would be a Dawg. For the second time.

Barbara Whittington Curtis, who had her cards on the table about Georgia for a long time, felt his last visit to UGA in March was vital. It was a “piece,” she noticed.

That came on the heels of key back-to-back visits to Oregon and Georgia.

“When we left there, I just really felt at peace about it,” his mother said of that UGA visit. “I just watched how Jared interacted. It was seriously like home away from home. He knew his way around. The relationships that he has built there. He was just, you could just see the pure happiness on his face.”

He was also content with what he saw at Oregon, but he’d only been there twice. That included one game. Curtis saw three UGA games last year alone. He’s likely at double-digit visits since he was first offered by Todd Monken more than three years ago.

“This was a three-year relationship,” his mother said.

Credit: Jeff Sentell

Credit: Jeff Sentell

Barbara Curtis rattled off shout-outs to the entire Georgia football machine on recommitment day, including key recruiting staff leaders David Cooper, Angela Kirkpatrick and Logan Reed.

“We love Coach Smart,” his mother said. “We love Coach Bobo. We love Coach Gummy (former offensive analyst Montgomery VanGorder), although he’s not there any longer. We love (offensive analyst) coach (Brandon) Streeter. We love Coop (David Cooper). We love Angela (Kirkpatrick). We love Logan (Reed). The list goes on and on. We love Georgia, and I am stoked. I am just so happy that Jared followed his heart and made a decision that’s best for him.”

She also addressed the financial aspect of it all. DawgNation has already reported that neither Georgia nor Oregon was the highest bid here.

“I know this is an NIL world, but relationships really do matter,” she said. “Those you can’t put a ticket price on.”

When Curtis got his first offer from UGA, she cried for two days. When he decommitted from Georgia last October, she cried for three days.

She cried Sunday night when Jared told the family his plan by dropping a “Wear Georgia things tomorrow” text into the family thread. His father then secretly recorded his mother’s reaction to that.

Nobody is ever going to see that video, she said. But Meryl Streep couldn’t play the part of overjoyed mother better than Mrs. Curtis did.

That stuff is good, but that still leaves a few key questions about a recruiting win that feels like the biggest for UGA since it signed the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect in 2019. That was future DGD Nolan Smith.

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