Georgia football: It’s official, Jacob Eason is the starter for game one
At Tuesday’s SEC Media Day, Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart stated that Jacob Eason will be the starting quarterback.
As if there was still any doubt, Kirby Smart just quelled it. Jacob Eason will be the starting quarterback of the Georgia football team for the Bulldogs first game against Appalachian State on September 2nd.
The true sophomore comes off one of the best freshman seasons in Georgia football history and undoubtedly the best season from a true freshman quarterback. In 2016, Eason passed for 2,430 yards with 16 touchdowns to just eight interceptions.
The only Georgia quarterbacks with more passing yards as a freshman were either redshirt freshmen (Aaron Murray and David Greene) or professional played baseball for a few years before coming to Georgia (Quincy Carter). Meaning Eason is the youngest 2,000-yard passer in program history.
Was Eason perfect as a freshman? Of course not, and if that’s an issue then maybe you shouldn’t demand so much from a kid right out of high school. You clearly didn’t set realistic expectations.
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I expected a season like Matthew Stafford’s first year in Athens out of Eason. After all, Stafford has a similar skill set and also started as a true freshman. Yet, Eason blew Stafford’s freshman year away. Eason had almost 700 more yards and flipped Stafford’s touchdown/interception ratio.
Another similarity between Eason and Stafford are their mechanical issues as freshman. Stafford threw a lot of rockets and the receivers weren’t used to them as in 2005 they were used to D.J. Shockley’s perfect-touch passes. While Eason didn’t throw rockets, he did throw deep balls too far very often.
A lot that is Eason’s fault for not lofting balls enough, but some of that falls on the receivers. None of them were really deep ball threats going into the season. Riley Ridley and Javon Wims only emerged as deep pass receivers later in the year.
After a full season and two whole springs in Athens, Eason has learned and developed a lot. His chemistry with receivers will be much improved. And he’ll have an all around better receiving corps.
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No disrespect to Jake Fromm’s talent, but he hasn’t proven himself to be a capable quarterback in the SEC. He didn’t pass for 2,400 yards against division-1 competition last year, nor did he throw more touchdowns than picks against that competition.
He’s unproven. I think he’ll be an outstanding quarterback in the future and I even think he’ll be serviceable if Eason was to get injured this season. But you just don’t bench someone after one of the best true freshman passing seasons in SEC history. Sorry Eason skeptics, you just don’t do that.