Putting Up Numbers· college football

Vanderbilt’s penalty yards with Jared Curtis and without Jared Curtis

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Against what the season’s ratings expected, Vanderbilt was 7.7 yards over with Jared Curtis and 0.1 yards under without Jared Curtis over its last 25 games, 6 games against 1. The plain averages are 66.2 and 66.5, a difference of 0.3. Expected was 1.7 yards lower with Jared Curtis than without Jared Curtis.

Jared Curtis, quarterback: 1,489 passing yards, 197 pass attempts and 128 completions in 7 of those 25 games.

2 games without Jared Curtis is still too small a sample for the statistics to say much, but maybe you can find something if you squint.

penalty yards a game over expected

A −0.3 difference in penalty yards with Jared Curtis vs without Jared Curtis is about what you’d expect.

The games

with Jared Curtiswithout Jared Curtis
Vanderbilt’s games, last 25 games, each marked with Jared Curtis or without Jared Curtis
SideDateGameResultpenalty yardsExpected
Nov 9, 2024vsSouth CarolinaL5748.5
Nov 23, 2024@LSUL1556.4
Nov 30, 2024vsTennesseeL8049.5
Dec 27, 2024vsGeorgia Tech (neutral)W7943.7
Aug 30, 2025vsCCharleston SouthernW60—
Sep 6, 2025@Virginia TechW7758.0
Sep 13, 2025@South CarolinaW5558.8
Sep 20, 2025vsGeorgia StateW9953.8
Sep 27, 2025vsUtah StateW6560.8
Oct 4, 2025@AlabamaL5258.4
Oct 18, 2025vsLSUW3560.4
Oct 25, 2025vsMissouriW8352.9
Nov 1, 2025@TexasL7051.0
Nov 8, 2025vsAuburnW2159.9
Nov 22, 2025vsKentuckyW7054.1
Nov 29, 2025@TennesseeW5157.6
Dec 31, 2025vsIowa (neutral)L5350.8
Sep 5, 2026vsAAustin PeayW73—
Sep 12, 2026vsDelawareW3662.1
Sep 19, 2026vsNC StateW11652.1
Sep 26, 2026@AuburnL4362.7
Oct 3, 2026@GeorgiaL6060.1
Oct 10, 2026vsOle MissL9260.5
Oct 17, 2026vsArkansasL3559.4
Oct 24, 2026@KentuckyL7553.8

Method

Read against .

  • Expected is an offense and a defense a team, fit over every 2026 game between two teams in the table with the game being read left out, minus 1.4 for the home team (the edge the fit finds once strength is in), nothing at a neutral site.
  • Each expected number is then fit to the season’s games: a game bears out about 27% of the difference the model predicts.
  • The shuffle keeps the season’s shape: the games are cut in two where one date leaves the least variance, each game is read against its stretch, and the sides are shuffled only inside each stretch.
  • Austin Peay has no other game in the table, so that game has no expected number and sits out the second figure.
  • Who played is read from the schools’ box scores’ participation lists for 4 of these 8 games; in the other 4 a player is counted as in them when the box score has a stat for him.
  • With him means he was the team’s quarterback that game, at least half of its pass attempts; a game he left early or came into late reads as without him.
  • 17 games in 2024 and 2025 are neither with Jared Curtis nor without Jared Curtis: Jared Curtis had no game for the team those seasons, and sit out.