NASHVILLE — When Vanderbilt five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis first got to campus, he was the type of player that felt like he had to earn his way to being a guy players look to as a leader.
Curtis is the type of person that has a quiet confidence about him where he just puts his head down and gets to work. It is an interesting spot for Curtis to be in as a young quarterback about to make just his fifth career start. He does not have much collegiate football experience, yet he is in a role where being a leader is a requirement.
Maybe Curtis was a little hesitant at first to step into that kind of role as one of the new guys on the roster. But lately, Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea has seen Curtis step more into a role of leadership and some of the veterans on Vanderbilt’s offense give him room to do so.
“He’s very humble, modest, and confident in himself. But the kind of confidence that I think grows connections with the people around him. And what I see right now in our program is I see older players, veteran players giving him space to become a leader,” Lea said. “When guys like Cade McConnell, MK and Cole give him the space to lead and give him room for his voice, you start to see that group kind of rallying around him.”
It is a gradual process for Curtis that takes plenty of time to grow and learn. A process that is going to continue throughout his career. Right now, Lea thinks Curtis is on a solid trajectory of growth early in his career.
Curtis is filling in big shoes after the departure of former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. Pavia played a leading role to bring Vanderbilt back into the picture of college football relevancy and contributed to the Commodores first ever 10-win season a year ago.
Filling in that hole is not easy and the growing process comes with its challenges. It is still a weekly routine of figuring out what Curtis is good at as a quarterback, where he needs to develop most in his play as well as how the coaching staff can best help him.
Since Curtis is a different style of quarterback than Pavia or even backup quarterback Blaze Berlowitz, there has to be an initiative to make adjustments within the offensive playbook. In other words, taking the offense Vanderbilt runs and matching it up with what Curtis does well on the field.
“I think a lot of time this would be similar to having a rookie quarterback play in the NFL. You have a talent and a skillset that’s different. You have a system that evolved to fit Diego’s strength and now you have this player, who has parts of Diego’s competitive personality and parts of that big game ability Jared does, but he’s got a different skillet,” Lea said.
In an ideal world, Lea would want his team as a whole doing as much as it can to take as much pressure off Curtis as possible. All three phases, in theory, are supposed to play strong so that Curtis is not put in spots where he may have the weight of the game on his shoulders in his first college season.
Ultimately, that has not panned out how Lea would have liked thus far. Between offensive operational penalties, errors on special teams and breakdowns on defense, Curtis and the offense has had to play from behind plenty since the start of SEC play began.
But amidst all of the things that have gone wrong, Lea sees Curtis growing into a leader and the respect he has gained in the huddle. If that type of progress can surface on the field this weekend, Vanderbilt may be in a position to pull off an upset against an AP Top 15 team.
“We need to play stronger around him. I think we’re doing a good job as an offensive staff identifying the things he does well. I see the connections growing in that shuffle with respect to his leadership voice and his ability to galvanize that ground,” Lea said. “All those are positive signs for where this is headed and hopefully it shows up for us on Saturday.”
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