Film study shows Jamie Newman could be the QB Georgia fans have awaited

Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman could be the quarterback Georgia football fans have wanted to see for years.

Quarterback Jamie Newman has come into Athens, Georgia from his success at Wake Forest and injected some life into a fanbase that was feeling a post-Jake Fromm depression. But as much as many fans loved Fromm (and rightfully so) there was still a feeling that the Bulldogs were in need of that difference-making quarterback.

There are some who feel Kirby Smart made the wrong decision in letting Justin Fields head off to enemy territory in the Big Ten. Others still yet felt like Jacob Eason should have been given the opportunity to win his job back after the injury that sidelined him in 2017.

Any way you slice it, most Dawg fans have been waiting for that true heroic quarterback to step in and lift up this team the way Joe Burrow did for LSU in 2019. There hasn’t been anyone who really captured that get-on-my-shoulders spirit and who had the physical traits and arm to back it up since Matthew Stafford.

So could Jamie Newman be that guy for just one season? That’s a tall order to fill, but a study of his film at Wake Forest shows he might just have the juice.

Jamie Newman Film Study: Head game

First and foremost, it’s important to establish that despite the lack of a huge arm or superb athletic ability, Jake Fromm was a winner, and he got that way from being a true student of the game and absorbing every bit of football knowledge he could. This will serve him well in the NFL.

Fromm was one of the best at recognizing what the defense was giving and taking, calling correct coverages, and mitigating mistakes even when things didn’t go as planned.

What can Jamie Newman bring in that area? Probably not as much as Fromm, but Newman’s incredible physical gifts will offset any lack of recognition on his part.

In the clips below, you’ll notice three things. First, his ability to see when the linebackers are going to creep up and crowd the box on him. He first gives a quick fake to a back coming into the flat, and then he looks downfield before finally hitting Scotty Washington on a crossing route.

In the clip right after that, Newman reads the blitz coming in and recognizes that he’s got the long, speedy Washington one-on-one on the outside. He takes a quick drop and then releases in a hurry before the rushers can even get close enough to affect the play.

In the third clip, Newman calls his own number as he sees the defense is essentially going to give him the A-gap. He uses his strength and legs to bust through the line for a huge gain.

Clearly, Newman has been well-coached and can read a defense quite solidly. He may make a few more mistakes than Fromm did, but he has the physical tools to overcome them.

Jamie Newman Film Study: The Legs

One part of the game Newman brings that neither Fromm, Eason nor any their predecessors had dating back to D.J. Shockley is being able to run the ball effectively. Being able to scramble and avoid the rush is nothing compared to being able to use your legs as an actual offensive weapon, and Newman brings that.

In the video below, Wake Forest is taking on North Carolina, and Newman puts on a dual-threat quarterback clinic with his run game.

In these two clips, Newman powers his way straight through the line for the touchdown … twice. This is a pure dive play and the Wake quarterback was not going to be denied.

In this clip, Newman recognizes the hole and hits it without hesitation. Then shows off some nifty shake-and-bake moves to turn it into a big gainer.

Plays like those above are something that has been missing from the Georgia offensive arsenal for a long time. Forcing defenses to respect not only the Bulldogs backfield and receivers but to also have to worry about what the quarterback may do if they leave him too much space will be entertaining to see.

Jamie Newman Film Study: The Arm

Here’s another part of the game where Newman can be a game-changer. He’s got the thunderbolt arm to push the ball downfield (and pretty accurately) and can also throw a nice touch pass or fade route when called for.

Check out these clips below.

In the first play, despite a bit of a high snap, Newman takes a quick step back and then, with a flick of the wrist, tosses the ball 35 yards in the air and hits Sage Surratt in stride for the touchdown.

At the 0:41 mark, you’ll see Newman perfectly place the ball with just enough mustard on it so that his receiver can high-point the ball and grab it, even in double-coverage.

Then (after you see Newman drop a few dimes to Surratt) at the 3:25 mark, he shows perfect touch on a back-shoulder throw to Washington for yet another touchdown.

Now all of this adds up to a pretty good quarterback and someone who can take what has been a pretty vanilla offense in recent years and add some different flavors, especially with Todd Monken taking over as offensive coordinator.

Under Monken, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the NFL’s top-rated passing offense in 2018. Had former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens allowed Monken to do his job with the tools he was given, that team could have benefitted from his experience as well.

As seen in the clips above, Newman knows how to run the RPO, something that Monken feels is an important part of the game right now, saying its “where football has been and that’s been my background” to DawgNation.com.

Is Jamie Newman the guy who can light up the offense again and re-energize a fan base who — by October of last season — had grown tired of dive-dive-pass-punt? It certainly looks like it right now. How he performs against a much higher caliber of defense is something yet to be seen, however.