ERA-CHANGING: Jared Curtis Ignites Vanderbilt Football—Will the Commodores SHOCK the SEC?

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coons. Well, many thanks, good sir. Here is my discover card. They accept a discover at Renaissance fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discoverers accept it at the places I love to shop. Get it with the times. With the times. You're playing the loot. Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right? Discoverers accept it at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report. Hey girl, what's happened? Is that your anti-perspirant? Yeah. Let me see that can. Illuminum butane. It's too. I cannot pronounce that. You have to switch to native deodorant. Native simple formula has only clean ingredients.

1:00It gives you effective 72-hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propellant. Wow, this smells heavenly. Clean effective 72-hour odor protection isn't a myth. It's native. Lots of buzz surrounding Jared Curtis after day one of spring practice. I sat down with Spencer McLaughlin to talk about it locked on College Football. You are locked on Vandy. You're daily podcast on the Vanderbilt Commodores. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. What's up guys, welcome in a locked on Vandy. I'm your host, Corey Burton. And on this episode, I got to sit down on locked on College Football with Spencer McLaughlin. Talk about Jared Curtis at everything he brings to the table. So. Here it is. The Diego Pavia era in Nashville is over.

2:03It's done. It was here for a good time and a long time. And that means there's a new quarterback at the helm. Corey Burton of Lockdown Vanderbilt is here to discuss the Jared Curtis era getting underway. Corey, I'm still somewhere in my mind as I process a million things at a time, trying to understand how exactly Jared Curtis who was down to Georgia and Oregon and pick Georgia is now at Vanderbilt. I know he's from the state, but this was unthinkable even five years ago. And for this era to be at the dawn of its beginning, I think is a really exciting thing for Vanderbilt fans. Yeah, this is the first big stepping stone in that new era of Vanderbilt. I mean, when NIO became a thing, Vanderbilt had some change over in their administration. And then they just started using NIO stuff and they started getting involved with things.

3:04They dabbled a little bit in 24, solves a little bit of success, dabbled even further in 25. They went in 10 games on the cusp of the College Football Playoff. Diego Pavia is a Heisman finalist and then known behold. They're like, we're going to go full, full bore end. We're going to go get Jared Curtis and we're going to make some waves. And that's exactly what they did. Yeah, I don't think it's overstating things, at least in my lifetime to say it's the biggest recruit in Vanderbilt history. And this. Yeah, with that, he's the highest rated ever, right? Yeah. And I mean, this is a guy who has got all the physical tools in the world. It'll be a big jump for him going to the SEC from the high school league that he was playing in. I think that's really the only question that anybody has about him. But the other one for College Football Fans outside of Nashville is going into spring practice, which is now underway. Is there any serious competition for the starting job

4:04or is this Jared Curtis all the way in your eyes? I mean, the company line says there is, but I mean, if you just watch a few of the clips out there on X of him just throwing the ball compared to the others, the ball just fires off his hand with so much more velocity than the other guys. I mean, his poise, what people are saying about him. I, you know, I think it's going to be extremely difficult to not play him. I mean, this guy's way ahead of his game, as far as all that stuff goes. I mean, he's going to make mistakes. Obviously, he's a freshman. But the guys believe in him. Clark Lee was raving about him. The proof is in the pudding when you watch the clips. I mean, it's just impressive all around. And I think he's the guy. I don't think it's going to be much of a competition even if they want to tout it that way. And even if they wanted to make it a real competition, I still think, you know, when you have the concept of cream rising to the top, I think Jared Curtis is that. Last year when Michigan had Bryce Underwood, I was screaming from the rooftops on this show

5:04or any other show that I went on that Bryce Underwood should start. And part of the reason I felt that was Michigan, to me, was entering kind of a reset year or a foundation laying year. And in a manner of speaking, that all got blown up when the Sharon Moore situation happened. Oh, yeah, that was brutal. It was. But it might have been a blessing in disguise because you wound up with Kyle Whittingham, who's been one of the best coaches in college throughout the last 20 years. And you bolstered your roster in the portal with the guys that he brings over with a real experience from Utah. But even if Sharon Moore stayed, I would have justified even though Bryce Underwood made some freshman mistakes that starting him was the right decision because you look at what he was able to do and he did a lot of really good things. But he's got to learn some time. And now I feel that this was always the year I felt Michigan was going to be able to get themselves back towards the top of the Big Ten.

6:05Apply that sort of analytical lens to Vanderbilt. Is this off of maybe the best year of Vanderbilt football ever? Is this at all a reset year? No, no. I think the roster is loaded up. I think the floor, I think the first goal that Vanderbilt has is raising the floor. I think once they can raise the floor and have their down years be, you know, seven, six wins, something like that. Whereas their down years in the past have been like two wins or three wins, right? So your first goals to raise the floor and I think they're doing that with the way they've constructed this roster, the way they've recruited, the way they are currently recruiting because it's spring practice. The sidelines were filled with scouts, recruits, families, media. I mean, it was a show today on day one of spring practice. So you have that kind of environment. It's the exact same logic as Bryce Underwood. I think what Jared Curtis can do far outweighs what he can't do.

7:05And you have to, you have to take what he can do, live with what he can't do, and mold him into a quarterback that can win now. But really, you're looking for year two to be that special year. But this year, I think is going to also be a good year as well. I don't want to discount this as a rebuilding year. But it's one where you're going to have a few more lumps than you would in year two and maybe even year three. Okay, we'll continue to, we'll continue to speak with Spencer here. But first, a word from our sponsors. Oh, Joey, another day, another buzz delayed. Look on the bright side. You can finally catch up on podcasts. You don't mind running late? What's your deal? What's my deal? I saved up Metro with no activation fees. I got one line 5G for just $25 a month, kept the phone I love, and a five-year price guarantee for my talk text and data. Only $25. I'm going to Metro when we hop off. Get that mop of your money feeling only a Metro by two mobile. Just bring your number $30 first month and $25 after without a pay

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11:30yourself. Visit MLB the dot show slash locked on and use code locked on to unlock a pack for diamond dynasty internet connection required pre order now on PlayStation 5 Xbox and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone. MLB the show 26 own the show. Coming out of high school when when when I broke down Jared Curtis and talked about him on unlocked on ducks because Oregon was a finalist for him. And I do this with all high school recruits. I make a ceiling comparison a guy who I am reminded of when I watch him play and I say if he works out to his fullest abilities, he could be this guy. And for Jared Curtis, my comp was Josh Alan. I've heard the exact same from other people than you as well. I think that's a perfect comparison. Big can run live arm. Great leader. Just all the intangibles just gets along with his teammates immediately. He's made an impact in the locker room. So that's a perfect comparison.

12:32Actually, I think I like that a lot. Now one thing that that comes to mind and why I think this can absolutely work out for Vanderbilt is the system they ran last year. It was very quarterback driven. It was very much Diego Pavia do almost everything Vanderbilt ran the ball better than most people probably remember a season ago at times. But Diego Pavia also did a good chunk of that going from him a veteran guy who was at the New Mexico military institute, New Mexico state and then Vanderbilt for a couple of years have played a lot of football. Are there any changes to the offense or tweaks or we can't quite go that far like they were doing with Pavia when you're working with a true freshman this year? I don't think they're going to run with the quarterback as much as they did with Pavia. I think they'll have some and obviously his scrambling scrambling ability is good. But it's going to be kind of more of him sitting back there and dealing option routes, short stuff, RPOs, things like that they were trying to evolve with

13:35with Diego Pavia. You started to see those things in the back half of the season where they were more down the field. They were more pass heavy. They were more throwing different different things and taking vertical shots and things like that. When you have a quarterback with an arm with arm talent like Jared Curtis, you're going to take more shots down the field. That's the evolution of this offense. It evolved from an option attack in 24 to more of a passing attack. And I think that was a statement when he kind of evolved it a little bit. That was kind of a statement for Jared Curtis saying, Hey, we're willing to adapt what we do to fit your needs. And this is the showcase in Diego Pavia showcased it beautifully. What do you want to see more than anything else or hear from Jared Curtis in Spring football? I want to hear that he is unequivocally the number one guy he is taking over. The team is galvanized around him. I want to see not only clips. I want to read about it in scrimmage reports. I want to see it in the black and gold game. I want to see him go out there and just deal, right? And have full command of the offense and I'll feel really good

14:41about that. Obviously, he's going to make mistakes that that goes without saying. But I want to see him generally have a great command of that offense and a great command of the huddle, the other 10 guys staring back at him. When he enters a huddle, I want him to have full control. That's going to make me feel good about Jared Curtis being quarterback one. What's the date of Vanderbilt's black and gold or their spring game? April 18th. April 18th. That is a month exactly from the day that this show is airing and there are a lot of spring games with either quarterback intrigue like Vanderbilt or quarterback battles like Florida State or Georgia Tech that I'm excited to follow April. Yeah, Florida as well. April 18th is circled on my calendar because I want to watch Jared Curtis throw the football against college players. I think we're all really excited to see that. Cory Burton locked on Vanny excited to see you here because it's an exciting time. Exactly. Is when you're talking about Vanderbilt football and not for a trolling purpose on a national show like

15:43this one and it's it's awesome. It like it legitimately it is I want to ask you this before you before you go. You're there in in Nashville all the time and around the team. Has there been a palpable pickup in buzz over the last year with all the success that they have had? Oh, 100%. You see flags more Vanderbilt flags around people wearing Vanderbilt shirts hats. You hear about it more. You see more stuff on X the fans are starting to to re-emerge a little bit and start to talk trash a little bit. You're starting to see the national announcers and other sports really raving about the Vanderbilt brand not just football and just it's just creating this snowball that's rolling down hill very very fast and that was evidenced by the attendance at practice day one when you don't really do anything on day one. It's just drills throwing, getting your feet under you and there was I mean, Clark Lee had both sidelines just full. You have you have you know four-star

16:45visitors all up and down the sidelines you had you know you're starting you're in it for a lot of big name guys. That's something that Vanderbilt has not been able to say even three years ago. So this is it's fast. It's really fast and they've they've risen to new heights. They're viable in in the conference. I mean, it's the fact that we're sitting here right now in March talking about Vanderbilt spring football shows you how far this program has come in such a short amount of time and it's only going to get better and it's still very young in their development as far as building the roster building the program and all that stuff. So very exciting around Nashville. I think with his fanatical is Nashville is as a city. They are chomping at the bit to have some sort of winter in Nashville. They go crazy for the predators. They go crazy for the Titans. The new uniforms dropped. I like them by the way. And then if Vanderbilt becomes something worth watching, Nashville people will get behind it. You know outside of the UT fans and Bama fans and you know some of the you know some of the people that is planted here from from other programs. But

17:48I think just anybody that's on the fence will gravitate towards that because Nashville's a fanatical city and they've got a great atmosphere at first bank stadium. So it's exciting man. It it really is. That's awesome. That is that I love I love to hear that. I mean, we're coming off a season in which Vanderbilt in Indiana when it combined 26 and three with one national title. Never thought I'd see the day and yet here we are. By the way, I'd like to commend you for knowing your audience there. Did you guys notice how Cory talking to an organ guy here slipped in? Oh, by the way, I love the Titans uniforms because he knows in my mind, I'm always on the prowl for great uniform combos. So Cory Burton locked on. Vandy, check him out if you have not. All right. Thank you for listening to the show. Make sure you like and subscribe. Make sure you follow the show on social media at locked on Vandy. Join every day's club at the link below, which is in the show notes. Make sure you join there. Use code March for your first month free. Join the every day or every day or club bracket pool on discord. You can go against me.

18:51It's it's great. So make sure you join that as well. And also we're going to continue with spring practice. Hoops. All of that as we plow forward plow ahead here on the locked on Vandy podcast. Thank you for joining. Thank you for watching. And we'll see you back here next time. Until until thank you down. Peace. Introducing the all new Mazda CX-5. Featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class? Safety that has your back. More discovery on the scene of crowds. More passion in the details. A more control in changing weather. The all new Mazda CX-5. More to move every side of you. See it in five films at MazdaUSA.com slash five sides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. Sequences shortened and simulated. When you invest with Fidelity Go, it does all the work for you. So while Fidelity Go monitors

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