Georgia Football has been more cautious with Justin Fields this season than I was expecting. With the bye week now behind us, look for that to change.
No this is not an article about how Justin Fields needs to be the starter people. If you’re looking for that then I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed. That being said, I do think that we’re going to start to see Georgia Football use their freshman QB more going forward than we have so far this season. That will start this week against a Florida team that will not be entirely sure what to expect from the young QB.
I’ve said since the beginning of the year that I thought that Fields would grow into a role as the season went on. After the LSU game, I think it’s pretty clear that he does need to be more involved. Georgia’s running game has been better when he’s been on the field because defenses just don’t know who is going to get the ball. It’s also time for him to be given a more open playbook and start to throw it around a bit.
I still think that Jake Fromm is going to be the main guy for the rest of the season. I would expect to see him in 75% of snaps if the Dawgs are playing games right up until the end of the 4th quarter. However, with Fields now having been in the program for 9 months and recent comments from Kirby Smart, I think we’re going to start to see Fields get some designated series going forwards. Like most people, I’ve not been a fan of bringing him in for one snap and then sending Fromm back in. It’s time to give the kid a shot to lead some drives.
I don’t know what’s going on in the coaches heads, but I do think that they will have learned some lessons from that LSU loss. Lesson number one was that they clearly need a better plan for their QB’s. That means having a structure in place for the players so that they know when they are going to be going in and having a shot. That should give Fromm some confidence that one bad series isn’t going to cost him his job and Fields the confidence of knowing that he’s got time to execute the offense.
Despite my distaste for Todd Grantham, Florida has a good defense. UGA’s offense will have to play well for them to win this game. Ideally, that would mean both QB’s see playing time much like the Tennessee game and both of them play well. Giving Fields that time will make this team better overall because it forces defenses to have different packages themselves and increase the volume of things they have to learn before playing Georgia. The Dawgs have two incredibly talented QB’s that could propel them into the CFP if they reach their potential this season. It’s time to take the leash off Fields and put both of them in the best situation to do just that.