Georgia landed another five-star recruit earlier this week, this one the top quarterback in the 2026 high school recruiting cycle.
While this would be a momentous event at most programs, the commitment of Jared Curtis has become a cause for pause at Georgia.
Why can’t the Bulldogs under coach Kirby Smart develop and keep five-star quarterbacks?
Jacob Eason. Justin Fields. Brock Vandagriff. Three big recruiting swings, three misses.
If you include Dylan Raiola – committed to Georgia for much of the 2024 recruiting cycle before flipping late to Nebraska – the Bulldogs and five-star quarterbacks is an ugly adventure.
There’s nothing simple or easy about this strange hiccup in the nearly flawless Georgia recruiting system.
Eason won the starting job in Smart’s first season of 2016, was injured in the first game of 2017, and never played another significant down before transferring to Washington.
Speaking of significant snaps, Vandagriff never took one in his three seasons before transferring to Kentucky. Then there’s Fields, the most prominent of Smart’s five-star recruits.
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Smart was already deeply invested in Jake Fromm, the four-star recruit who took the job in 2017 from an injured Eason and never lost it. The uber-talented Fields was a backup in 2018 – and became a two-time All-American – at Ohio State.
This brings us to Curtis, the top quarterback in the 2026 class, and according to some rankings, the No.1 player overall. And this five-star recruitment has had its share of drama, too.
Curtis committed to Georgia in March of 2024, then decommitted in October and said he wanted to restart the process. He eventually zeroed in on Georgia and Oregon, and chose the Bulldogs again earlier this week.
His commitment leads to another unavoidable reality in the process: if need be, can he (and Georgia) be patient?
If Gunner Stockton plays well as the Georgia starter in 2025, Curtis may not get on the field in 2026. In other words, one of Georgia’s highest-paid revenue share players will be standing on the sideline.
Beginning July 1 when revenue sharing is projected to begin in college sports, college football will deal with similar problems faced in the NFL: can a team afford to sit a player whose contract is among the richest on the team?
The argument can be made that if Stockton is still the Georgia quarterback in 2026, he, too, will be among the highest-paid players on the roster. But teams can’t afford that much money invested in one position room.
That could lead to an uncomfortable decision, which will no doubt be based on Stockton’s play in 2025. If he plays well, Georgia will be forced to pay him more than Curtis — or Stockton will leave.
If Georgia pays both, that will commit a significant amount of revenue sharing to one position with only one starter.
Want to know why Quinn Ewers left for the NFL despite a late-round NFL draft projection? There’s an argument to be made that it was a money decision for Texas (which quarterback gets paid?), and a legacy decision for Ewers — who couldn’t transfer to another school after leading the Longhorns to back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinals.
Ewers had no choice, and Texas wasn’t going to pay both a premium salary to be on the roster. It’s a luxury teams just don’t have.
Then there’s one more potential snag to Georgia finally figuring out five-star quarterback development and retention. The staff is excited about the potential of backup Ryan Puglisi, who will have two years in the system by the time Curtis arrives.
If that sounds like Stetson Bennett IV and/or Carson Beck, it should.
Which fits perfectly with the history of the position at Georgia. Five-star quarterbacks simply can’t beat out lower-level recruits.
That’s about as simple as it gets.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia hopes Jared Curtis reverses five-star quarterback history
