Clark Lea thought Vanderbilt had no shot at Jared Curtis — but the 5-Star 'misfit' chose to flip the script
What if I told you that Vanderbilt quarterback Jared Curtis took a different route in deciding where he wanted to play college football, with a school that put zero resources into recruiting him until one phone call changed the future for Clark Lea?
And what would you think, as schools roll out the red carpet and do anything necessary to land a coveted prospect, if it was actually the player who recruited the school?
A nonconventional recruitment, like the one that took place with Jared Curtis, is rare in this era of college athletics, especially when money is such a driving force in schools staking their claim to industry rankings.
Whether it's private jet hours, parents securing houses, exotic cars or even schools offering real estate offerings to a recruit in the hopes of a signature, we entered uncharted waters over five years ago with the inception of NIL.
But in the rare instance of the highly-touted quarterback's recruitment, money was the last thing discussed during a recruitment process that left those on West End, and college football, a bit stunned at how this all came together.
It's one thing to just throw out an offer to a highly touted prospect to get your school's name on the list. It's another thing to actually find out that this potential five-star quarterback is sincerely interested in your school
In fact, Lea was not going to waste his staff's time in pursuing a kid he knew there was no shot in landing.
The reality for Vanderbilt was that in the grand scheme of things, even with all of the momentum created over the previous two years, Curtis was the prize recruit that seemed so far off their radar that inviting him out to practice was most likely the closest they'd get to having him around campus.
"We really didn’t recruit Jared. Not that we wouldn’t have recruited him, but part of being effective is elimination. You don't wanna chase things that aren’t gonna happen," Lea mentioned earlier this summer to OutKick about Jared. "He came to a Tuesday practice the week we were playing Tennessee in 2024.
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"That was really kind of it in terms of seeing him and interacting, and even on that day I don't know that I spent that much time with them, outside of sitting in the team meeting."
All of this came during a time in which Curtis de-committed from Georgia, was lured to Oregon for a short time period, then re-committed to Georgia.
All the while, Vanderbilt was still on the outside, not even thinking they had shot to get on his radar outside of a random appearance at practice like any other recruit.
There might have been a visit to practice, but it wasn’t as if Vanderbilt was under the impression that the five-star quarterback who was garnering headlines due to his talent and subsequent recruiting process with Oregon and Georgia.
But, what Vanderbilt would soon find out was that Curtis was not actually fully invested in leaving his city behind to play at Georgia.
"I think the starting point really was about Jared being unsettled and trying to find a place he really felt great about I think he loved Oregon and loved Georgia. But, he was unsettled. We didn’t put much time and attention to it, we just focused on growing our program
"He was paying attention, then kind of organically reached out and said 'I'd like to come and spend some time at practice," Lea recalled.
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What turned into Jared showing up for a practice during Vanderbilt's bye week after losing to Alabama in 2025 blossomed into something the Commodores coaching staff did not see coming.
It was actually Diego Pavia going to watch a friend of the family play high school football on a Friday night that had Vanderbilt coaches starting to change their tune, just a bit.
Following that game, which had Pavia marveling at the talent of Curtis, a late-night phone call to his offensive coordinator Tim Beck put the wheels in motion for a story nobody in the high school football world thought was possible, especially those around the Georgia campus.
"Diego goes to one of his games on a Friday night," Tim Beck recalled. "Diego calls me that night, and he says, 'Hey, man, you got to see this kid'. I go, 'Yeah, we know about him, we know about him, Diego'. He (Diego) didn't think we knew about him. It's like, 'yeah Diego, we know about him, but he's not interested in us, he's committed to Georgia'. And he goes, "Well, I talked to him. I think he's interested'."
As for that next morning, after the late-night call from a stunned Pavia, Beck would come to find out that not only was Jared Curtis interested in the Commodores, he made it a priority to pay attention to what Vanderbilt was doing on the field.
"He really didn't have a favorite team that he was. He really didn't have a favorite player that he watched," Beck told OutKick. "And so, I called Jared the next morning, on a Saturday morning, and I talked to him a little bit, and one of the first things i said is, 'Hey, I know you, you haven't been really been watching much ball, but I was just curious'.
"And before I got through my sentence, he stopped me and said, 'Coach, I got to be honest with you, the only team I've watched this year has been Vanderbilt'."
For Lea, running an authentic program, especially when it comes to recruiting, has always been at the forefront of his conversations with recruits.
While some players are rightfully chasing the money, Vanderbilt's coach knew that there had to be more than just finances and merely getting along with Curtis.
"There's something inauthentic about a full-court press when you haven’t had a relationship," Lea told OutKick. "I want to be authentic and genuine in the way we're presented.
"So, my conversations with him were about 'Hey, I think this can be a really great thing for the both of us. Here’s the ways I think it benefits Vanderbilt, and here's the way I think it benefits you. I don't want you to do it unless you believe in it wholeheartedly because this is going to be too hard'."
There weren’t conversations that started about how much it would take from a financial standpoint to land Curtis.
In reality, there was still hesitation from those within the Vanderbilt stratosphere to even engage with Jared's NIL rep, Peter Webb.
But, if Vanderbilt was going to swim in the deep end of the pool related to NIL in college football with such a highly-touted prospect, they had to dive head first.
So, when noted attorney Ryan Downton and his highly regarded, successful wife, Pearl Downton, decided it was time to invest their time into the NIL space of college athletics, they needed to know Curtis was first making the decision to attend Vanderbilt for the right reasons.
There were no monetary offers when the quarterback started to engage with Vanderbilt on a more consistent basis, which came when the Commodores hosted Missouri last season, which also brought "College Gameday" come to town.
In fact, the Downtons had not even thought about starting an NIL IP entity that could help Vanderbilt athletes, even though they were fully-engaged as donors and fans of the program.
But, once they knew this wasn’t just a ploy from Curtis to drive up the price and that the five-star actually wanted to stay in Nashville to create his own legacy like the one he was witnessing Pavia put a bow on, it was time for the family to start making calls.
First, it was Jay Cutler, who just happened to be their next door neighbor. Once the former Vanderbilt quarterback was in, then it was time to call noted Nashvillian Nate Bargatze. It just so happened that Bargatze was already in, having mentioned on "College Gameday" that Curtis would be invited to have a small role in a movie he was starring in.
Add in Vanderbilt graduate Griffin Perry, who is the co-founder and senior adviser at Grey Rock Investment Partners, along with being the co-founder at Fermi America, the Commodores have plenty of financial resources to play the NIL game in college athletics.
But, this wasn’t some wild offer to persuade a high school kid to attend Vanderbilt. This was a group of dedicated fans who were trying to do their part in helping Lea continue growing the Vanderbilt football program.
It's different on West End. There is a newfound sense of pride within the city of Nashville, thanks to what Clark Lea is doing, along with a quarterback in Pavia who drew the attention of college football fans across the country. Now, whether you liked his antics is another story. But to those who have been praying for times like these, they were all-in with their unwavering support.
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After representing Pavia in his lawsuit against the NCAA to gain an additional year of eligibility, the Downtons decided it was time to once again pull together the support needed to make sure Vanderbilt was in a great position for the future.
A FaceTime conversation with Bargatze while on a jet to watch Vanderbilt take on Tennessee in Knoxville, followed by meetings with Jared Curtis' NIL representative Peter Webb, all led to Vanderbilt pulling off the 'heist' that had folks at Georgia scratching their heads.
And while there will be folks who think a multiyear contract worth $10 million was the sole reason why Jared Curtis decided to stay home and play for Vanderbilt, it actually had nothing to do with money.
Sure, one of the top players in the country is going to garner a very large financial offer, that's a given. But, having an athlete make a decision on their own, without the family trying to play such a large part in the recruitment is becoming rarer by the day.
In college athletics, the schools are recruiting the family sometimes harder than the actual player, which obviously puts the athlete in a rather awkward position of not wanting to disappoint those closest to them.
"He's gotta wanna come here. We were not going to chase after him..Jared had to decide, on his own," Tsunami Dores' CEO Pearl Downton told OutKick. "I don't think it was a way he had ever been recruited before (in the process). He has to decide he wants to come to Vanderbilt, and he's gotta decide that he's a misfit
"In terms of being a misfit, there's nothing more misfit than turning down one of the top programs in the country to come to Vanderbilt."
The opportunity to play at Georgia was obviously enticing, and almost happened. But, Jared Curtis saw what was continuing to be built on West End.
He wanted the opportunity to try and help Lea continue building on the foundation laid by those that came before him, which at his position were players like Cutler and Pavia.
Success won't happen overnight. Who knows, it might not ever happen for Curtis. Nobody can predict the future, and he's an 18-year-old athlete.
But like many others have mentioned to me over the past seven months since he chose to wear a Commodores jersey, Curtis decided where HE wanted to attend college and continue his career.
The money was going to be there at any school he chose. But now, Curtis gets to continue building upon the No. 2 jersey that was worn by Pavia.
"I think it's absolutely unique in terms of a recruiting process ... I've really enjoyed that person. He's a good kid. Humble, modest, hard working, simple," Lea said. "He's a really good representation of who we are."