Overall #1 QB in 2026 class considering MT?

[arg3b]

Why former Georgia football commit Jared Curtis has MTSU, yes the Blue Raiders, among top schools

I know it will never happen, but still interesting

 

[sWiley]

wow what a dude. getting him on campus would be huge

 

[ewglenn]

People called me crazy but he has been here before.

Jared Curtis on Campus

Never know what might happen down the road. Awesome to see a player like this on campus even if it is for a 7V7.

middletennessee.forums.rivals.com

 

[Shayne_Pickering]

Wouldn't be shocked to see him on campus from conversations I've had

 

[RaiderDoug]

Rumor on the big SEC boards is that Curtis committed too early to UGA, and is now fishing for a better NIL deal somewhere, or trying to get UGA to up their offer.

This won't happen now - but you never know who bounces back to you in the portal in a few years.

 

[ewglenn]

Rumor on the big SEC boards is that Curtis committed too early to UGA, and is now fishing for a better NIL deal somewhere, or trying to get UGA to up their offer.

This won't happen now - but you never know who bounces back to you in the portal in a few years.

You know, this is another reason to keep the local ties strong. We’ve got a lot of 4 and 5 stars in Middle TN that are leaving for big time programs. In a few years, if they haven’t gotten playing time they might be looking for a new home. Having a bunch of their former teammates or friends could help us bring them back here. Relationships don’t matter as much now with the coaches but plenty of 18-22 year old guys are wanting to go hang out with their friends. More local ties helps us in a lot of different ways.

 

[BRaiderDave]

You know, this is another reason to keep the local ties strong. We’ve got a lot of 4 and 5 stars in Middle TN that are leaving for big time programs. In a few years, if they haven’t gotten playing time they might be looking for a new home. Having a bunch of their former teammates or friends could help us bring them back here. Relationships don’t matter as much now with the coaches but plenty of 18-22 year old guys are wanting to go hang out with their friends. More local ties helps us in a lot of different ways.

Bingo

 

[RaiderDoug]

You know, this is another reason to keep the local ties strong. We’ve got a lot of 4 and 5 stars in Middle TN that are leaving for big time programs. In a few years, if they haven’t gotten playing time they might be looking for a new home. Having a bunch of their former teammates or friends could help us bring them back here. Relationships don’t matter as much now with the coaches but plenty of 18-22 year old guys are wanting to go hang out with their friends. More local ties helps us in a lot of different ways.

It always irked me to check out the state rankings on here and TOS, and see all these Tennessee guys going to places like Georgia State, Arkansas State, Troy, MAC schools, etc - and it was rare to land anyone in the top 50-75 instate under the last staff.

I'm not one of those guys who says we should recruit Rutherford county just because, but there's plenty of talent in this state, especially G5 talent that can play here. You can still supplement the class in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, but start it at home.

Hopefully, Mason can continue to trend of building pipelines instate.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

It always irked me to check out the state rankings on here and TOS, and see all these Tennessee guys going to places like Georgia State, Arkansas State, Troy, MAC schools, etc - and it was rare to land anyone in the top 50-75 instate under the last staff.

I'm not one of those guys who says we should recruit Rutherford county just because, but there's plenty of talent in this state, especially G5 talent that can play here. You can still supplement the class in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, but start it at home.

Hopefully, Mason can continue to trend of building pipelines instate.

When you have a high school not even 5min from campus that has made the state championship 7 of the last 9 years and won it 5 of the last 7, there absolutely is some talent there to be had.
It is criminal how the last staff handled things.

100% credit to Mason for building those relationships back.

 

[MTFAN61]

Absolutely agree, love the fact we're embracing local talent, & in turn getting lots of positive feedback from these athletes as well. Now we just have to find some co-ordinators to coach them!

 

[BRaiderDave]

Absolutely agree, love the fact we're embracing local talent, & in turn getting lots of positive feedback from these athletes as well. Now we just have to find some co-ordinators to coach them!

That would be nice.

 

[Shayne_Pickering]

When you have a high school not even 5min from campus that has made the state championship 7 of the last 9 years and won it 5 of the last 7, there absolutely is some talent there to be had.
It is criminal how the last staff handled things.

100% credit to Mason for building those relationships back.

Exactly. Obviously you can't JUST recruit local, but the 2025 class in-state was deep and they had spent the whole year trying to re-establish connections to pipelines that MTSU can actually pull from consistently. I know some people complained about that but this program can't just live in Atlanta or other metros with a ton of programs the whole time.

They also just didn't miss really outside of some early QBs and obviously losing Joel Lowenberg to Wake so they didn't have to further. Now 2026 in-state class isn't NEARLY as deep, so you should expect to see the staff really push into GA, AL, and some FL. As teams in-state are starting to attract talent tho, the young classes look promising, and the recruiting staff has done a nice job bringing those 2027-2028 guys to campus early.

And then like Rhett said, sometimes it's just as important to finish runner-up for someone in this era