The butterfly effect is very real in college football, especially in recruiting.
Top 2026 quarterback recruit Jared Curtis on Monday announced his commitment to the Georgia Bulldogs after narrowing it down between the Bulldogs and Oregon Ducks.
Although Oklahoma offered Curtis, along with everyone else, the Sooners were never really in the mix, but OU will still feel the impact from when Curtis unzipped his jacket to unveil a Georgia shirt.
Jared Curtis commits to Georgia, which OU was competing with for two quarterbacks
The Sooners missing out on a quarterback they never had a real chance at landing seems like a negative, but OU will most likely benefit from Curtis' decision. The biggest negative will be having to play Curtis one day in SEC play.
Curtis' commitment means the Bulldogs have their quarterback for the 2026 class, which should end their hunt for a signal caller. Georgia was also after a pair of OU targets in four-star prospects Jaden O'Neal and Bowe Bentley.
Had Curtis chosen Oregon, the Bulldogs would start pushing hard for O'Neal or Bentley.
Bentley recently narrowed his choices down to three -- OU, Georgia and LSU. Now one choice has essentially been marked off the list for him. He had an official visit scheduled to Georgia on June 6-8, then to Norman on June 13-15 and to LSU after that.
O'Neal has been committed to the Sooners for nearly a year now, however, that relationship got a little shaky after Ben Arbuckle was hired as OU's new offensive coordinator and the Sooners started going after Bentley despite already having a commit.
Although he has assured his commitment since and even moved from California to Oklahoma recently, O'Neal has still been visiting other schools. Although he's taken other visits, Georgia is the only offer O'Neal has announced on social media since committing to OU.
The Bulldogs offered O'Neal in late January, just four days after OU had offered Bentley. O'Neal then visited Georgia in March, just a day after Bentley was in Norman. O'Neal has taken multiple other visits since.
The Sooners are balancing the line of either landing two quarterbacks or missing out on both. Getting two in one class seems unlikely, though. And OU would be in trouble if O'Neal flipped, then Bentley didn't choose the Sooners later on so the Sooners let their QB slip away for nothing.
However, the Sooners' biggest competitor in this QB race is no longer competing. Georgia likely backing off both quarterback prospects gives them both one less top option and increases OU's chances, especially with Bentley, who has said playing for OU would be "a childhood dream."
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