Believe it or not, Jared Curtis is in unique company at Georgia. He’s the first five-star quarterback to sign with Georgia since Justin Fields, and we all know how his time in Athens ended. Kirby Smart can’t afford to make that same mistake with another five-star quarterback.
The quarterback position has been volatile at UGA lately, honestly, since Fields departed the school for Ohio State. He left because Smart opted to give Jake Fromm the keys to the offense. Sure, it turned into a national championship, but who is having the better NFL career?
Since Fields left, Georgia has produced decent college quarterbacks, but has failed to produce NFL-ready quarterbacks. Curtis has a chance to buck that trend, but it would force Smart to do something he hasn’t done in quite a while.
The current state of Georgia's quarterback room implies Jared Curtis is Kirby Smart's crown jewel
Smart can’t play around with Curtis like he did with Fields. The current crop of quarterbacks in Georgia’s locker room isn’t exactly promising. We never saw what Jaden Rashada could be and he’s now at Sacramento State.
Gunner Stockton showed he’s probably not as good as advertised and it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of confidence in Ryan Puglisi. The Bulldogs lost Carson Beck to the transfer portal and he’s now at Miami. Curtis brings a new flavor UGA fans have been starving for.
He could make Georgia fans forget all about the inconsistent quarterback room if Smart gives him the opportunity when he steps on campus. There’s a reason why Curtis opted for the Bulldogs over Oregon, which has a much better track record of producing NFL-caliber quarterbacks. That has to be because he feels he has a real chance to make an immediate impact.
Smart needs Curtis more than he probably realizes. He's not a five-star prospect by name, he's a five-star prospect by talent. UGA needs to give him the chance to thrive or it will ultimately fall into the same trap as it did with Fields.
In the transfer portal era, if Curtis falls into depth chart hell, he’ll probably leave after a year for a school that’s willing to take him seriously. Smart looked foolish for not figuring it out with Fields.
It would be a shame for him to repeat history with Curtis and lose what could be one of his best quarterback prospects since he took over the Bulldogs’ program.