Georgia football: No close quarterback battle according to Jim Donnan
Former Georgia football head coach Jim Donnan was on the Paul Finebaum show last week and he gave his opinion on Georgia’s quarterback situation.
Related Story: Yante Maten is not going to the combine
Jim Donnan, 1-AA national Championship winning coach, College Football Hall of Famer and former head coach of Georgia football from 1996-to-2000 put in his two cents on Georgia’s quarterback situation going into the fall of 2017.
On the Paul Finebaum Show last Wednesday, Donnan said:
"“Every quarterback has got to win the job every year. I mean, that’s part of the deal. It’s not just Jacob’s situation, but I think he’s way ahead in the fact he’s been here for a year. He’s played a lot of SEC games, and he knows the system. Fromm has certainly got an ability. He played in a very tough league [as a high school player] in Georgia. He has a chance to come in here this spring. But I think at this point, it would pretty much be an upset in my opinion if [Eason] gets beaten out, just because he has had so many reps.”"
While it’s easy and maybe tempting for some fans to brush off Donnan’s opinion because then Athletic Director Vince Dooley fired him after the 2000 season and because he hasn’t coached a college game since.
You also have to keep in mind that while Donnan was a head coach, he was a really good offensive mind. He was offensive coordinator of Oklahoma when they won the National Championship in 1985 and had the second highest scoring offense in school history.
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
Donnan went on to Marshall to become their head coach in 1990 and stayed with them through the 1995 season. In six years, the Thundering Herd played in four Division 1-AA Championship games and they won the National title in 1992. And in those six years, Marshall was known for scoring a lot of points.
He arrived in Athens in 1996 and took over a program that was on the decline. After going 5-6 in 1996, Donnan’s Dawgs went 10-2 in 1997. Unfortunately he couldn’t produce any more 10-win seasons and he was fired for a lack of success beyond the 1997 season.
To judge him as an offensive mind, however, his opinion is one that should be respected. Maybe not to always agree with. But his point of view definetely trumps that of any one who’s never played or coached a college game.
Experience is something valuable that a lot of us do not realize. Eason coming off a true freshman season where he threw twice as many touchdown passes as interceptions with over 2,000 yards should give him an edge over a newcomer.
It shouldn’t matter how great the teams Fromm played in high school were, they weren’t Florida or Tennessee. And that’s the bulk of Donnan’s point. It’s easy to look at stats from the G-Day Game or at some of Eason’s shortcomings from last year and think that Fromm has a good chance of taking the starting job.
Next: Weekly Top 10: Teams Georgia football has never defeated
However, that isn’t the case as Donnan pointed out, Eason has a huge edge because he played against the SEC.
We don’t know how Fromm will look against that level of competition yet. But we know how Eason looked last year and as long as he’s improving, he’ll retain the starting quarterback position.