Georgia Football: The truth about J.T. Daniels situation

Georgia football quarterback J.T. Daniels was cleared, but was he ready?

The whispers and rumors continue to revolve around Georgia football quarterback J.T. Daniels. What is a fact, what is fiction, and what is just a biased unvalidated opinion? These are the things that the Georgia fanbase would like to know. When will they get to see the USC transfer take a snap behind center for their Bulldogs? As they wait, impatiently, for this question to be answered it seems they are coming up with even more questions than answers.

Daniels was medically cleared to practice back in September. What has been the hangup? If he is medically cleared why has Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis have received playing time but not Daniels? Does Kirby Smart even know how to evaluate quarterbacks? Let’s take all these questions one by one.

There have been multiple reports and rumors saying Daniels is no longer practicing in a knee brace. However, the brace being off doesn’t mean he is mobile enough to play in a live hitting situation. Smart doesn’t allow his QBs to be hit in practice, that is why mobility had been a question, even though he has been practicing.

The knee being able to hold up under a hit is important because earlier in the season Georgia football’s offensive line had not been established. Putting a less mobile Daniels behind a struggling offensive line would be irresponsible on Smart’s part. Imagine having to have this conversation with a player’s parents, “sorry Mr. and Mrs. Daniels, your son won’t ever walk right again, but our fans were being impatient and demanded I ignore the dangers of playing him and put him in any way.”

Also, the knee isn’t the only question. Daniels is behind the other QBs when it comes to learning the offense as well. He has been spending most of his time either rehabbing or throwing against air. He hasn’t really worked a lot on getting the offense itself down. After realizing that Daniels wasn’t going to be able to play against Arkansas Smart had to get the quarterbacks that could actually play ready. This ate into the meaningful snap Daniels would get in practice.

However, according to Seth Emerson of The Athletic, Daniels is now practicing with the ones:

There is a good chance Smart now trusts Georgia’s offensive line, Daniels’ mobility, and Daniels’ ability to run the offense enough to give him a shot to compete for the starting quarterback position left open by the injury to Bennett. There will be a lot of eager eyes on where this competition goes. Fans have been eager to see what this kid could do since he transferred some months ago and they may finally get to see it next week against Mississippi State.

With two weeks to prepare for that game Smart should have plenty of time to get Daniels ready to play. Even though Daniels hasn’t had a lot of time in Todd Monken’s offense he has run similar concepts out in California. So getting him up to speed shouldn’t take that long. Especially since Daniels has a pretty high football IQ (he’s been calling his own plays since middle school).

Georgia football’s passing attack finally looks like it is going to get right after struggling most of the season. It’s a shame it couldn’t have come sooner, but you can’t rush these things. They must be treated with care and attention to detail. That said, it is great that Daniels is finally ready to go and we will all get to see what he can do soon.