Winning, Boom style

He’s got Derek Mason right where he wants him.

Will Muschamp: "We are not ready to name a starter before Vanderbilt. Obviously, that’s going to be to our advantage."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) August 21, 2016

Yeah, because if he had a reliable starting quarterback, that would be so bad.

“We’ve got a plan in our mind.”

As we’ve all heard, Kirby’s let Jacob Eason run with the ones this week.  And for all the hyperventilating about whether that means Eason’s been anointed as the starter, and the speculation about how Smart’s trying to be coy to keep the upperclassmen from transferring, I think there’s a larger point that’s been overlooked.

Freshman Jacob Eason got more first team work this week (while also spending more time with the second team and less with the third). Smart said that was to get more practice reps with the starters since he didn’t go with the No. 1 unit at all in the spring.

“It was a situation where we wanted to try catch him up and evaluate him and get him more reps so we could continue to evaluate the other two and the other two would continue to go but they would also be with the threes some,” Smart said.

The five-star recruit from Lake Stevens, Wash., showed that “he’s growing as a player,” Smart said. “Just the cumulative effect of the reps, it doesn’t matter what offense you’re in, the fact that the other two have been in a college system for three and four years, it puts them in an advantage from the standpoint of dropping back and making decisions, seeing coverages. We’re trying to catch him up to speed and get him some reps and find out what he can do. How he’s responded, I think he’s done a good job of responding to it. He’s had an opportunity to make more plays and also an opportunity to make more mistakes. He’s done both. He’s got to continue to improve there.”

Quite simply, the coaches know that reps matter.  And in and of itself, that attitude is a vast improvement over what the quarterbacks were saddled with all of last season.

“We’ll continue to go down this quarterback road until we figure it out,” Smart said. “I can’t tell you anything, update you right now because I want to reserve judgment until I watch the tape like last time.”

I don’t profess to know who gets the final nod, or even who gets weeded out soon, but I feel pretty good about where the coaches appear to be headed.  If nothing else, that’s a reason to feel more optimistic about where 2016 is starting over where 2015 finished.

Random notes from a wet scrimmage

Just a few odds and ends to pick at:

• They changed officiating crews yesterday, and Nick Chubb got his ass tackled to the ground, much to the pleasure of his head coach. “He’s doing a good job. Nick’s a workhorse,” Smart said. “He works hard at it. It was wet out there. It’s tough to have a lot of speed and burst in that environment but a lot of times it’s not the fastest guy. It’s the guy who can stay on balance and body control.”
• Not so much for Sony Michel:  “It’s a situation that’s in the medical hands,” Smart said. “There probably is a date where we would say `Hey, we need to know something by,’ but it’s not like Sony hasn’t played football. The biggest thing for him is going to be ball-security.”
• Elijah Holyfield joined the ranks of the wounded, damn it.
• Roquan Smith is making a move. You’ll have to pardon me if I feel a little giddy about the prospect of playing an ILB who’s not a liability in pass coverage.
• Giddy is not how I feel about the state of the place kicking team.

Necessity (in the form of the 2013 class) is the mother of invention (in the form of the 2016 class).

About this year’s recruiting class, Chip Towers believes at this point in preseason practice that “at least 80 percent will play and possibly more”.  Here’s how he breaks down their individual chances:

Georgia’s 2016 signees listed with their chances of playing this season.

• OL Chris Barnes, 6-3, 294: Unlikely
• DL Michail Carter, 6-3, 317: Likely
• OT Tyler Catalina, 6-6, 325: Potential starter
• DL Tyler Clark, 6-4, 309: Maybe
• DB Chad Clay, 6-1, 170: Dismissed, transferred to Butler CC
• OL Ben Cleveland, 6-6, 345: Likely
• QB Jacob Eason, 6-5, 242: Potential starter
• CB Mecole Hardman, 5-11, 180: Likely
• TB Brian Herrien, 6-0, 205: Maybe
• TB Elijah Holyfield, 5-11, 209: Likely
• OL Solomon Kinley, 6-4, 350: Unlikely
• LB Jaleel Laguins, 6-2, 220: Unlikely
• P Marshall Long, 6-2, 223: Likely
• OLB Chauncey Manac, 6-3, 255: Maybe
• DE David Marshall, 6-3, 270: Likely
• CB Tyrique McGhee, 5-10, 177: Likely
• WR Riley Ridley, 6-2, 195: Potential starter
• DL Julian Rochester, 6-5, 327: Potential starter
• WR Tyler Simmons, 6-0, 194: Likely
• WR Javon Wims, 6-4, 220: Maybe
• TE Charlie Woerner, 6-5, 249: Likely

(He left Nauta off his list, but mentions in his post that the tight end is likely to play.)

Some of that reflects the quality of the class — Smart signed three five-star players in that bunch — but some of that clearly reflects need.  For example, there isn’t a single defensive lineman on that list who’s already being counted out.

About those linemen,

“Julian Rochester, Michail Carter, those guys are big-time athletes, elite players. Those are big dudes. David Marshall, very put-together,” said Rusty Mansell, a recruiting analyst for 247Sports. “You’re probably not going to hear as much about them week one, two or three. But when games five, six or seven roll around. Those guys are going to be playing meaningful minutes.”

In that aspect, at least, it’s a shame that Georgia’s 2016 schedule is front-loaded.  I can see why it’s logical to expect some struggling in the first five games, as the coaches deal with depth and inexperience issues, but it’s exciting to think where this team may be in the last month of the season, once they progress up the learning curve.  If they can get through the first five games still in the division hunt, November could prove to be a really fun month.

The ordinary Mr. Lambert

In this case, I mean it as something of a compliment, albeit a back-handed one.  Check out this chart Ian Boyd compiled, ranking last season’s SEC starting quarterbacks by yards per attempt:

You have to admit Lambert fits right in.  I will grant you those stats say a lot more about the state of quarterbacking in the SEC than about Lambert, but still, it’s hard to look at that and insist he was awful, or the worst quarterback Richt ever started, or some of the other astute analysis I’ve seen from some of you here.

And maybe that explains a little about why he’s still in the mix for 2016.