The Georgia football team had three quarterbacks all supposedly battling for the starting job, but with Virginia transfer Greyson Lambert now joining the mix, has everything changed?
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Georgia head coach Mark Richt said all along that there would be an open competition for the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback job, but that open competition just got a little more interesting with the addition of graduate transfer Greyson Lambert, who has reportedly chosen to come to Georgia.
Greyson Lambert says he’s transferring from Virginia to Georgia
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) June 3, 2015
Greyson Lambert is a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility and is eligible to compete to start this season immediately.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) June 3, 2015
As Joe Schad’s tweet stated above, Lambert will be able to come to camp and compete to play right away since he has completed his undergrad requirements. So what does this mean for the other three quarterbacks who were already in a tooth-and-nail battle for the starting job?
For one thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Georgia will have four quarterbacks on scholarship. In fact, the way the Richt and his staff so aggressively recruited Lambert to come to Georgia could be a sign they knew that one of the three QBs on the roster could be leaving, more specifically, Faton Bauta.
Bauta, who on paper and in the eyes of many may have had an edge in the 3-man battle coming out of spring camp, has also graduated and would be eligible to play this year should he decide to transfer. The rumblings around Athens were that regardless of how strong Bauta looked, Richt was still inclined to lean towards Brice Ramsey as the starter. If that were in fact true, then it could be that Bauta was already giving signals he was headed out of town.
Jacob Park, who is the wild card in the entire QB mix, has little experience other than his play with the scout team last season, and would have really needed to make a huge impression to solidify anything more than backup role this season.
But Lambert — who also visited and looked at Florida as a possible destination — could be the guy who coaches may look at to take the reins and lead this team for at least one, possibly two, seasons. With No. 1 overall player and QB Jacob Eason almost certainly coming to Athens next season, that would make the path for either Ramsey or Park even more difficult to get playing time. It wouldn’t be out of the question to see Georgia lose more than one of the three current QBs.
Georgia Bulldogs
The 6’5, 235-pound Lambert is an imposing presence on the field who saw playing time in 13 total games during his two years as a Cavalier. He was a 4-star recruit, and the No. 8 Pro-style QB in the nation coming out of Wayne County H.S. in Jesup, Ga. in 2012.
The book on Jesup is that he’s got a big arm with some accuracy issues, but a high football IQ and a lot of upside. During the 2014 season he started nine of UVA’s 12 games, throwing for only 1,632 yards — including 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions — in an offense that was split nearly even between run and pass plays – 451/432.
There is still a long way to go in this QB battle, and until we see Lambert on the field and find out how quickly he can pick up on Brian Schottenheimer’s offense, we won’t really know if the Bulldogs have themselves a potential starter or just another insurance policy for the next two seasons.