Quarterbacks have always been the rarest players to scout and recruit in high schools. There’s a lot of talent, but with the NIL in the picture, it all needs to be well thought out. Or? Multimillion dollars in NIL money will go down the drain. We saw one battle in the 2025 recruiting class as Bryce Underwood was almost poached at the last moment from LSU in a sensational $12 million NIL deal. This year? It’s been quite the same. There’s a QB, he has massive talent, and almost every team is after him in the FBS Division 1. But the player might have made his stance clear, and it may not be Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs.

5th May, 2025, will be the date when Jared Curtis, the most sought-after QB in the 2026 class, will finally lay down his commitment. The QB has also narrowed down his list to two programs being Georgia and Oregon. The player was initially committed to Georgia, and even after his decommittment last year, he hasn’t given up the thought of joining the UGA again. The only hurdle?

Well, for now, the only hurdle in the reunion of Kirby Smart and Jared Curtis is Oregon’s “unlimited” NIL power after Phil Knight, the Nike founder, stepped in to provide “unlimited resources” to help his alma mater win a natty. Former UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel even said that the 86-year-old is willing to do “whatever it takes” to make Oregon a national champion. For Georgia, this is troubling news as their OC Mike Bobo has been aggressively recruiting the QB for some time now and has withstood the NIL tremors from Oregon. But now all of it seems to be changing.

Brandon Adams, the host of the podcast ‘DawgNation’ and a Georgia insider, provided the bleak news. “Whatever good vibes have existed between the Curtis family in Georgia, a close relationship with Mike Bobo, kind of close-proximity to their home in Tennessee, that eventually just overwhelming financial firepower that Phil Knight can bring to the table for his alma mater that might eventually win out…. Perhaps all of this happens for Georgia and Jared Curtis, and eventually he chooses Oregon, and for the people who’ve kind of always thought that’s what he was going to do”.

This might not be the first time the Bulldogs have been beaten in the NIL game. In recent years, Kirby Smart has been bested by several other programs that have used their NIL resources to the fullest. For instance, in 2023, Dylan Raiola flipped to Nebraska when Matt Rhule reportedly came up with a $2 million NIL deal. Moreover, in the 2025 class, Georgia missed on Keelon Russell as Georgia chose to go with a ‘low-cost’ Ryan Montgomery in a potential strategic move. But this time, they would need a top QB in their 2026 class.

Mike Bobo provides a glimmer of hope for the UGA supporters and Kirby Smart

Right now, Kirby Smart only has Gunner Stockton as his top QB after Carson Beck moved to Miami in another potential big NIL money move ($4 million). Ryan Montgomery, the 4-star prospect in the 2025 class, does offer some relief, but in the long term, the program would still need to go deep in their pockets and land a talented quarterback. Jared Curtis’s commitment would have been a step towards that. But even after the harsh revelation involving Phil Knight’s NIL backing and Oregon coming all guns blazing, there might be some hope.

In an episode of UGA Football on Dawg Post, the host provided some relief for Georgia supporters. “I was told that, hey, Georgia really made things interesting, right? They may have caught up to Oregon. Right now, I think it’s up in the air. I think it’s a toss-up. I was told that he has not made a decision, right? He’s still going over things, and Georgia’s going to see him twice before he makes his commitment. I was told that Mike Bobo will be in Nashville to visit Jared Curtis at his school on Wednesday and then will be back for an in-home visit.”

Building relationships is something Mike Bobo is quite apt at, and he is going to do the same now. The motto is: if we can’t pay him the money, then better win his heart, right? But the NIL world is harsh, and high school players coming to colleges have dreams in their minds of providing a better life for their families. This is something that can serve as a bigger motivation than any relationship. So, all in all, there’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but we don’t know if Mike Bobo can even make it to the end, with so little time remaining.