Georgia football: With Ramsey gone, Smart must alter plans for Eason and Fromm
Brice Ramsey transferred from Georgia football last week leaving the team with only two scholarship quarterbacks.
Related Story: Five questions before spring practice
In college football, one of the most difficult things to manage is a depth chart between seasons. Unlike the NFL, college’s only have players for a few years and can’t just go out and acquire players from a free agency.
Players graduate, leave early to go to the NFL draft and transfer. The only way to get new players is the recruit high school talent and contact players looking to transfer. Because of this, deficiencies at positions are bound to open up.
One of the more difficult positions to recruit is quarterback. Many of the best quarterbacks coming out of high school expect to start soon and as we’ve seen dozens of times in the past few years, talented quarterbacks will transfer if they can’t start. Preserving quality depth at quarterback is incredibly different.
For Georgia football, this became a big issue last week when Brice Ramsey transferred. Now Georgia’s only quarterbacks on scholarship are rising sophomore Jacob Eason and incoming freshman Jake Fromm.
Besides them, the only other quarterback on the roster is walk-on Sam Vaughn after other walk-on Parker McLeod was taken off the roster. Georgia’s depth at quarterback will be back to four players this fall when Stetson Bennett IV joins the team. But, Eason and Fromm will still be the only ones on scholarship.
How does this affect Eason and Fromm?
Before Ramsey leaving, Georgia’s plans for the quarterbacks was pretty obvious. If Eason retains his starting role, then Georgia can keep Fromm off the field to preserve his redshirt. That way, if Eason does end up having a great career and leaves after his junior year, Fromm can become a starter as a redshirt sophomore and Georgia might get three good years out of him.
More from Dawn of the Dawg
- Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
- Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
- Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
- Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
- Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
Georgia would be okay if something minor happened to Eason because they would not have to burn Fromm’s redshirt, they can just play Ramsey whoever long they needed to. Unless of course Eason succumbed to a major injury, then Fromm would get to play and Ramsey would be the backup.
But now Fromm is the backup and he will play even if the Eason is only out for a couple of quarters. This won’t affect the 2017 team all that much, it might make them a little better actually. The effects will be felt long-term.
In 2018, Eason will be a junior and Fromm will be a true-sophomore. If Eason stays for his senior year, Fromm will be a junior on the Georgia football roster. That is if he chooses to stay. Many recruiting sites rater Fromm as one of the highest rated recruits in the 2017 class. He didn’t come to hold a clipboard.
He’s trying to get to the NFL and he’ll want the best resume possible to get taken high in the NFL Draft. Fromm will have every right to transfer. And unless Georgia signs another top-tier quarterback, Eason might be the only adequate player at that position.
Of course if Eason does leave after his junior year, Fromm will take over as a junior in 2019. In that case we can only expect two years from him. And he still might enter the draft if his 2019 season is impressive enough to NFL scouts.
On the other hand, what if Fromm beats out Eason for the starting job? After already starting one year, Eason would most definitely transfer after 2017. And if Georgia is unable to sign a really good quarterback in the next recruiting class, Fromm might be the only good quarterback on the roster.
Ramsey leaving doesn’t immediately change the plans. Smart and Jim Chaney should still try to preserve Fromm’s redshirt. But it will be much more difficult to do so now. It also means that Georgia will need to recruit a quarterback for the 2018 class with more urgency.
No matter how you look at it, Brice Ramsey transferring throws a large wrench into Georgia’s long-term plans for the quarterback position.