Vanderbilt football rumors: Why Diego Pavia’s 5-star replacement is no lock for QB1

Vanderbilt football is coming off the best season in program history. They won 10 games for the first time ever, and quarterback Diego Pavia was a Heisman Trophy finalist. While he lost that award to Fernando Mendoza, Pavia’s 29-touchdown season will be remembered in Commodores history forever.

Pavia is off to the NFL now, though. Although he went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, the quarterback accepted an invitation to attend the Baltimore Ravens rookie minicamp, and that culminated in a three-year contract. Vanderbilt also went to work quickly finding a replacement.

The team received a commitment from Jared Curtis, a five-star quarterback recruit from Bellevue, Tennessee. The signal caller was one of the top high school players at his position, and many have expected him to make a big impact on the collegiate scene right away. CBS Sports reports that Curtis isn’t a lock to win Vandy’s quarterback job, though.

“In many ways, he was as advertised from a talent perspective,” the report from Chris Hummer and Matt Zenitz states. “But the Commodores’ starting QB battle remains undecided heading into the summer. Curtis could be termed the favorite (he’s paid like it), but veteran Blaze Berlowitz, who came with some of the staff from New Mexico State, had an excellent spring showing.”

“[Curtis] is a freakazoid talent-wise,” a CBS source said. “I don’t know if he’ll be our starter. That’s more a [complement to] the other QBs in the room. He’s as good as we’d hope he’d be. The other guys in the room are playing good football right now. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.”

Immediately starting as a freshman is a rarity in the modern game, as NIL and transfer portal moves are more preventant than ever before. Even if Curtis doesn’t start right away, he certainly has a bright future ahead of himself.