CHATTANOOGA — Comedian Theo Von sat down with Jared Curtis the night after Vanderbilt football played Missouri.
Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia was there in the circle, too.
It was a full-court press.
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“They just told me that everyone comes through Nashville. That it was the place,” Curtis said after Nashville Christian’s 59-7 win over USJ in the TSSAA football DII-A state championship on Dec. 2. “That was their message, that Vanderbilt was building something special.”
Von, Pavia and Nashville-native comedian Nate Bargatze were all part of Vanderbilt’s furious and ultimately successful effort to get Curtis, the nation’s No. 1 class of 2026 recruit, to flip from Georgia and sign with Vandy on Dec. 3.
More: How Jared Curtis turned an old jacket into a Vanderbilt football good-luck charm
More: What Vanderbilt commit Omarii Sanders said about Jared Curtis, Owen Cabell flips
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Bargatze personally called Curtis.
“He was just saying the same thing Theo said, that Vanderbilt was a special environment,” Curtis said. “It was a fun conversation.”
Curtis could finally put his wild recruitment behind him and look ahead to college after completing 14-of-19 passes for 205 yards and five TDs in his final high school game. Curtis will enroll at Vanderbilt in January.
Vanderbilt and Clark Lea got heavily involved with Curtis in late October. The last month and a half was such a blur Curtis says can’t even remember when Vanderbilt first initiated contact in the process.
But it was Pavia who put in a lot of the work.
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“Me and Diego talked on the phone a lot,” Curtis said. “He was really supportive and helpful.”
Vanderbilt aggressively sold its product on the field, Curtis said. The Commodores are 10-2 and lobbying for a College Football Playoff spot. A source told The Tennessean that the administration extending Lea’s contract was also “huge.”
Lea convinced Curtis that Vanderbilt’s season isn’t a fluke.
“I think Coach Lea has come in and clearly flipped around the program,” Curtis said. “I don’t think they’re the doormat of the SEC anymore. They’re coming out swinging in every game they’ve played in. They’re proving it.”
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Curtis figures to have a chance to play immediately. Junior Blaze Berlowitz will be the Commodores’ most experienced quarterback returning.
“The job’s not (promised) for me,” Curtis said. “I just need to go in there and compete. Blaze is a good quarterback and I’m excited to compete with him. We’ll just see how that goes.”
Curtis shrugged off the gravity of his flip to Vanderbilt. He’s the highest-rated signee in program history and his recruitment became a national story.
“I don’t look at myself as a big hot shot,” Curtis said. “I play football and that’s my job.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
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He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Vanderbilt football closed the deal with No. 1 recruit Jared Curtis