Putting Up Numbers· college football

Vanderbilt’s third-down conversion rate with Jared Curtis and without Jared Curtis

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Against what the season’s ratings expected, Vanderbilt was 1.3 percentage points over with Jared Curtis and 6.0 percentage points over without Jared Curtis in 2026, 6 games against 1. The plain averages are 42.5% and 37.5%, a difference of 5.0%. Expected was 5.6 percentage points higher with Jared Curtis than without Jared Curtis.

Jared Curtis, quarterback: 1,489 passing yards, 197 pass attempts and 128 completions in 7 games this season.

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.

third-down conversion rate a game over expected

A +5.0% difference in third-down conversion rate with Jared Curtis vs without Jared Curtis is about what you’d expect.

The games

with Jared Curtiswithout Jared Curtis
Vanderbilt’s games, 2026, each marked with Jared Curtis or without Jared Curtis
SideDateGameResult3rd downsExpected
Sep 5, 2026vsAAustin PeayW33.3%—
Sep 12, 2026vsDelawareW33.3%42.8%
Sep 19, 2026vsNC StateW41.7%40.9%
Sep 26, 2026@AuburnL23.5%40.8%
Oct 3, 2026@GeorgiaL41.7%35.6%
Oct 10, 2026vsOle MissL52.9%39.7%
Oct 17, 2026vsArkansasL45.5%43.7%
Oct 24, 2026@KentuckyL58.3%39.5%

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, plus 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 40% 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.