It turns out that Smart and Chaney decided to scuttle a few butts yesterday.
Over the weekend, it looked like Jacob Eason was the favorite to win Georgia’s starting quarterback job. But head coach Kirby Smart declined to name a starter on Monday, and the picture was muddled even further a few hours later.
Greyson Lambert appeared to be first in the pecking order at Monday’s practice, at least during the media viewing period.
During a passing drill, where quarterbacks threw to receivers, Lambert was clearly first, followed by Eason. Brice Ramsey was interspersed for a few throws, but it was mostly Lambert and Eason, in that order.
The feeling from those around the team lately has been that Eason was the clear leader. He received the majority of the first-team snaps in Saturday’s scrimmage in the Georgia Dome, according to someone who was there. But neither Eason or Lambert have been told anything, multiple people close to the program said. The team hasn’t been told anything officially either.
So much for last week’s whispers about Eason winning the job.
Honestly, isn’t it logical at this point to expect Lambert to hit the field Saturday in the Dome? After all, what coach in his right mind would let a quarterback start his first collegiate game against a D-1 opponent without getting all the first team reps in the practices leading up to the game… oh, wait.
Then again, considering the state of Georgia’s offensive depth chart, who’s to say Eason wasn’t getting reps with the eventual starters? (I keed, I keed… I think.)
With the shuffling going on, I think I’m more intrigued as to how the quarterbacks will look against North Carolina than who winds up taking that initial snap. I just hope the coaches aren’t being too clever for their own good with this.
Get The Picture 
I’ve been fairly skeptical of starting Eason, although with all the first team reps he’s been getting I do expect him to play a lot. Coming from the Saban tree, it just seems that Smart would opt for the experienced game-managing senior over the hotshot freshman. And that’s fine with me; I had conservative football drilled into my brain by Coach Dooley from an early age.
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Down in the comment section of that column Emerson revealed that at the end of the viewing period the 1’s and 2’s split, and lambert remained with the 1’s.
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The media viewing period is about as useful as a pair of teats on a boar hog.
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Good point on second team receivers… Ridley will play a lot. I suspect Nauta will too. The Eason-Ridley-Nauta trio along with Sony out of the backfield may be our most prolific group… no matter who starts.
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Our fan base seems be divided between those who would like a sports car vs. those who would be happy with a Camry. Nothing wrong with a Camry but this particular one has 150k miles on it and has broken down multiple times.
Yeah. I know Lambert won 9 games last year and only threw a couple of picks. I don’t buy that BS. I saw a guy who would bail out of the pocket at any chance and throw the ball away. I’m sure I’d have few picks with that mindset as well.
And btw I’m sure Greyson is a great guy and yada yada. But I’m not a soccer mom and I like to see results. Just bc I question Lambert as a starter doesn’t mean that I’m insulting him. Good on him for getting a degree from a good school.
Go with the upside. GL has been playing for years and hasn’t shown any thus far.
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winning games and not throwings picks now count as BS stats.
You want to see results, but not results like wins, touchdowns and not throwing picks. Results like. you know um you know it when you see it type results.
anyway, this group of coaches is making the same dumb mistake that the coaches made last season. Just pick someone and give them the reps. How do none of these coaches trust each other?
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“this group of coaches is making the same dumb mistake that the coaches made last season”….
Is that a pre-mature conclusion or did I miss a game?
We’ll be happy Saturday evening, methinks.
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How is thinking that practice makes people better a pre-mature conclusion?
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I wouldn’t have the QB situation handled any other way. Lambert has extensive experience starting and doesn’t necessarily need to be prepared to start. It seems the coaches feel Lambert has received adequate reps with the first unit. Obviously, the plan is to play Eason, so giving him reps with the first unit makes sense. This seems ideal for letting Lambert start the first few games while Eason gets game experience and prepare to take over. If Lambert struggles, Eason can come in and give the team a mental lift (I don’t think Lambert coming off the bench would do that). It is a win-win.
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You could argue that the “not throwing picks” part is in fact a BS stat if you watched replays of every game he played last year. I know I can name off the top of my head at least 7 throws where he hit a defender right in the chest and the ball was dropped. GL was very fortunate to have the TD/INT ratio as high as it was on paper last year.
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There is a reasons DBs are described as WRs that can’t catch…because you know….they cant catch.
Does Lambert also get credit for TDs that werent caught?
what about wins, he didnt start?(oh wait there arent any of those…)
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I trust the coaching staff. If Lambert starts it is bc they think he can win….I hope.
The problem I think we’re all having is that we don’t know how much to discount what we saw last year to account for the Schotty factor. Was Lambert a world beater? Absolutely not. But go back and watch that last drive against Tennessee; he can make some good throws.
I think the offense last year was a disorganized mess from start to finish. In retrospect, Richt should’ve given the job to Lilly.
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“Richt should have given the job to Lilly.”
If you injected CMR with truth serum, he would probably say the same thing. I never understood why he didn’t do exactly that and go back to coaching QBs like he did with Bobo during the mid 2000s. The 2nd thing is he should have never let Jeremy Pruitt convince him Rob Sale should be the O-line coach.
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Judging from what Richt said at his farewell presser, I bet he would have said he should have taken the job back for himself.
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Good point, Senator. I took that comment in his press conference to mean that he wished he had been more hands-on with the QBs. I also remember he said he missed calling plays, game planning, and spending time in the QB meeting room.
Yes, you’re right … he probably would have taken the job himself. I would love to know if he approached the AD with that option and said he needed to reduce his other commitments to take back the OC role. Someone close to the situation could write a great book about what happened between October 1 and December 7 last year.
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It’ll leak out eventually. There was too much smoke about the whole Pruitt thing after Florida last year for there not to have been some fire somewhere.
If you read the tea leaves a little bit from people that know a little bit about what went down, you can basically put it together.
My feeling is that Rocker’s “mutiny” slip last year was a lot closer to the truth than anyone realized.
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There are only a few books that could be written that would make me take off work, stop what I’m doing, and read them in one sitting. A Mark Richt tell-all from his time in Athens (however unlikely) would be one of them.
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Emerson: none of the QBs has been told anything.
Legge: Smart met individually with the QBs to let them know where they finished in the competition.
Someone is misinformed.
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Dean is usually right, IMO.
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“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”
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I honestly don’t care, although the gut says go with the experienced QB and work the rookie in as often as you can until you know he won’t drown. This may be the sexiest discussion for media and fans but I am more concerned about the OL and DL as they will determine the winner Saturday. Throw in the never-ending place kicker battle and there is plenty to discuss besides the three QBs.
My guess on the QB competition is Eason had his shot to put it away last week, and in the Saturday scrimmage, but had enough issues to make Kirby back off. Don’t really know why it matters so much who takes the very first snaps, both will get their time to prove what they can do under the bright lights during the first two weeks.
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With regard to Eason not nailing it down in the last scrimmage, I don’t think that was the case at all. I’m pretty sure it was Kirby’s plan to play both quarterback’s all along.
I believe Eason will evolve into an absolute superstar with a little time and experience, but my gut feeling has always been we should bring him along a little by little with more and more playing time over the first 3-4 games. By then he should be comfortable enough for the staff to turn him loose.
He’ll be ready when they do.
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I don’t disagree at all, definitely prefer to work him in gradually and move as slow, or fast, as he can go. He may indeed become the superstar we all hope, that isn’t a given BTW, but it cannot hurt to let a more experienced QB get things rolling on Saturday. I want him to get a couple of drives, at a minimum, then give him more time against Nichols St. if he looks solid enough. I really think we have two games before we have to make a long term decision on QB.
I still think Eason being flooded with reps with the #1s at that point of the camp was an attempt to let him grab the brass ring. Not saying he failed in the scrimmage,, but just my own guess here, I feel he looked uncertain enough to make Chaney/Smart step back and realize he didn’t need to be thrown into the deep waters at this point. Him being one of the selected two says that he didn’t fall totally on his face. I have said before, he did not arrive in Athens with the background credentials that Stafford brought, and we all remember that was a roller coaster ride in the first year.
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Mac and ‘Zilla…you both make perfect sense (to me anyway, which could be bad news for your mental state). But good, solid posts as usual.
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I’m all for playing Eason. But, you have to admit, on some level it makes sense to let Lambert start and bring in Eason as the game settles down. I hate writing that. I’d prefer never to see Lambert on the field again in anything other than mop up duty. But putting a high school kid in the dome with all the noise and pressure of the first game of the “Kirby Smart Era” might not be the best idea. Let Lambert run the first few series. Let the players get comfortable. Let the fans settle down. And then let Lambert ride the pine.
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If Lambert starts and comes out with that innertube around his waist, we’ll know he still believes he’s in over his head.
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Well played, baitstand! Dat funny!
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Yep, he should be tall enough to not need any safety devices at this point. GL is a pretty good passer when he is able to set and throw, which could happen with 1) better OL play, a healthy Chubbster, and more diversified passing routes. I think we see a more polished passer with Lambert so I have no concerns about him being oneof the two. I did have this thought that Ramsey might break through during this past 8 months but that obviously did not happen. Regardless, both Lambert and Ramsey have had a very fair/extended opportunity so it is one them what happens from here.
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At this point I’d say that we’re looking at a rotation and they’re gonna let someone win the job (or lose it) on the field. Hard to argue with that approach under the circumstances.
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“Damned with feint praise” takes on a new meaning when cheering for Lambert to start and then putting him on the bench. You might oughta’ look at that scenario and find out who you are trying to please with that statement because it doesn’t sound as if it is a lone individual’s lament. Dawg fans that profess that aren’t very real about cheering for the team’s success. I respect someone who takes a scorched earth view of Lambert’s winning efforts more than that no-stand bullshit.
The fans who don’t want to see Lambert win…I mean, play, should not go to the game. You are being whipped back and forth by opinion and not looking at substantiating facts to cheer about ( he wins games for you ). Telling the coaches how to play and when to play whom just exacerbates your reasoning.
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We want a winner. We want the QB to lead this team to victory by his actions and his performance. A guy that everybody in that huddle looks at and just knows he is going to get them in the end zone.
We need an explosive play-maker that can put the team on his back and carry them across that line if necessary. A guy that can make shit happen by creating big plays and extending the drive with a big time throw when everything else is failing to work.
Don’t you get it? Lambert just isn’t that guy.
Lambert is a protector of the ball, at least so far, and that is a fine trait.
He will also throw the ball away to avoid a sack most of the time. That’s great, too.
The problem is, we need more than that from our QB. We need a guy who can do more than just hand the ball to Chubb or Michel; one who can throw for more than 100 yds against the likes of Mizzou and Vanderbilt. A guy who won’t abandon the pocket at the first hint of pressure, which happens too often. Fortunately for us, we have a freshman that can do many of the things, especially with his arm, that Lambert most assuredly can not.
Eason may not be able to perform at his peak immediately, but he will quickly adapt to the speed of the game as well as how to read coverages and get us into the right protections, with enough playing time.
This will lead to the Dawgs playing to win instead of playing not to lose, and that’s all we’ll do this year if Lambert remains the first option. With a healthy O-line and backfield, we will establish a dominant run game, no doubt. But that won’t be enough to win all the games we have to win. Big-time players step up in big-time game situations, and the plain truth is Lambert hasn’t done that.
Sometimes, merely managing to win games isn’t good enough. Just managing to win is exactly why we started out ranked #1 in 2008, won our first three games, yet dropped in the rankings each week. We finished 10-3 and out of the BCS rankings, but, hey, we won 10 games again!
SICK. OF. IT.
Sometimes, it’s how you win that counts.
Hopefully, Smart and his staff know this and will get the most talented QB in the game on a full time basis as soon as possible.
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It’s never how you win.
It’s also never how you lose.
.
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If we had finished the regular season 12-0, would anyone have cared one bit about how we beat Missouri, GSU or tech? No … just win, baby. Style points don’t matter. If they did, the 1980 national championship would have never happened.
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If we had won 12 and been “dawgraded” out of the playoffs, (which I believe would have been the case) we would be talking about it. As it is, we’re the only team to win 10 and be unranked..it would have been “Twelve against the Elves”, I tell you. Georgia needs to win and win big over every weak sister…and win in any fashion over the better teams on the schedule.
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With conference championship and 4 team playoff, 1980 might not have happened.
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Hasn’t Eason taken just about every meaningful snap with the 1s for the last 2 weeks up until yesterday?
Could it be that Lambert needs some reps with the 1s to stay sharp in the event we need to make a change mid-game?
Seems odd Legge would put that kind of info out for consumption. Perhaps the coaches weren’t happy with Eason’s performance under the bright lights of an empty Georgia Dome, but – if Lambert is indeed the guy – to change course that drastically within a week of kickoff doesn’t make a lot of sense unless Smart/Chaney knew they only needed Lambert with the 1s during game week to have him ready to go.
What happens today and tomorrow should be a big indicator if we’re going with Eason or a time share.
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None of you guys get it! He’s gonna start Ramsey.
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Don’t care, beat UNC
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Me too, PTC. As far as the QB situation goes, k sera, sera.
I just want to see the Big Dawg EAT!
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Speculation is the real game at UGA. You wanted Saban Jr., you got Saban Jr. Kirby has not got time for your shit. When the guys covering the team for the “media” start to complain about access, the lack of information coming out of the press conferences and the coach not having a sense of humor because he didn’t play along with a lame joke and he had his game face on, all questions are answered, Kirby is full blown Bama. We now only need ask WWSD (What Would Saban DO). I’ll tell you. He will play with the QB that won’t make mistakes. When is the last time Saban opened the season with a true freshman QB? Eh never.
Chaney could be telling Kirby that Eason is the second coming of Tom Brady and it would not matter. Freshman QB = turnovers and mistakes in calling audibles. Freshman not starting. There we have the answer from Saban.
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Pretty strong argument there, 69.
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Two weeks ago I thought all indicators pointed to Lambert starting so I’d convinced myself that was the best thing and started to get used to the idea.
Then over the last two weeks with Eason practicing with the 1s and then this past weekend with the “news” that he was going to start and “play the entire” first game I convinced myself that was awesome and I started rationalizing in my mind why everyone on the planet should be excited about that.
Then yesterday CKS threw Lambert out there….
Is Lambert at this point a feint? Or is he the final decision now? Or is a final decision not being made until Thursday or Friday?
I’m beginning to see the whole QB controversy in a different light, because of how it has unfolded this year (again). I’m thinking the coaches do it on purpose, but not because they’re trying to confuse their opponents, but because they’re trying to keep the press distracted. The press (and fans) can be obsessed with this one issue and while they’re worried about it they aren’t worried about other things. In this way the coaches are exerting a lot of control over press coverage – ensuring a lot of the oxygen is taken up by an issue they have complete control over.
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IF there is a controversy, it is in your own mind.
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I buy that.
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Grayson will start with an Eason Shuffle.
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I’ve decided to quit worrying about who starts. If whoever starts lights it up, Go Dawgs!! But if they don’t….well, how long do you wait to go with the other guy. And if Eason is the other guy, how much more pressure does he feel coming in to make good reads, and score quickly? To me, the entire issue about who starts has less to do with who’s better (Eason, obviously) than who can handle adversity, and who is best capable of righting the ship if it founders? This is more a mental/psychological thing than a physical thing.
Glad I’m not a coach.
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Lambert hasn’t been a world beater in that category either (handling pressure), my friend.
Lambert’s problem with handling pressure doesn’t come from having to perform on a big stage…
Lambert’s problem with pressure comes from linebackers and blitzing safeties…and therein lies the problem.
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Scene: Kirby Smart-Let’s play Eason with the one’s this week and next week we will switch to Lambert.
We hear the offensive coaches laughing in the background as sports writers, bloggers and fans heads all over Georgia explode!
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