I was mocking the notion in my header yesterday, but seriously, are we really about to go down the road of making Eason sux a preseason narrative, ESPN?
Let me just add that if you want to start throwing shade about a premier talent not living up to the hype, perhaps it would be better to throw it in another direction, like this one:
Maybe Fromm does beat out Eason next season, but it won’t be before games are played. It is Eason’s job to lose more than Fromm’s to win. For Eason to lose it, he will have to put in some bad performances next season and lose some football games because of it. And that will mean Smart and Jim Chaney will have probably squandered one of the best QB talents to come to Athens in decades. Which also means you should not trust them to develop Fromm into a top-level quarterback.
Get The Picture 
That paragraph sums up my thoughts exactly. If Eason fails (which I don’t think is going to happen), the blame is squarely on Smart and I Haz a Fat Pencil.
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I read that yesterday and I couldn’t agree more. If Eason does turn out to be a bust, it says as much about Chaney and Kirby as it does about Eason himself.
When Lambert came in as a transfer I said it would be a very bad sign for Georgia should he beat out Ramsey. It would mean Ramsey wasn’t good/wasn’t developed more so than Lambert being great.
I have the same feeling about Eason and Fromm. If Fromm beats Eason out as a true freshman, it says as much bad about UGAs offensive staff than it does about Eason himself.
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ron zook was a great recruiter who failed to develop the talent he brought in, and couldn’t do much with the talent he inherited. The clock is ticking. Wasn’t McCheapskate part of the team that fired him? I’m not rooting for failure, not even a little bit, but the future is now. Not 2019, now.
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If I had to choose between this and the press treating him like they’re Beano Cook and Jacob is Ron Pawlus(sp?), I’ll take this. If he’s a competitor it’ll all serve as fuel for the fire.
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As long as it’s just the press fueling this nonsense. If Kirby is spouting this in an attempt to light a fire (not sure one actually needs to be lit – Eason seemed to have command of the huddle last year), then that’s very dangerous. Kirby can split the team with this stuff.
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I don’t think Fromm has a chance to beat out Eason. That said, the idea that the coach will split the team by keeping EVERY starting position open for competition is dead wrong. This is the mentality that Smart is likely working to rid the team of and apparently the fan base needs to flush it as well.
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I agree with that. More to the point, I don’t think Kirby is engaged in the kind of tear-down exercise McElroy is.
The catch being that it’s fine to motivate Eason, but in the end, you better have some good position coaching to go along with it.
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I think the point is to motivate every player, every day, every rep, every snap. The coaches need to work just as hard to improve, so yeah…agree there. Is this not The Process at its core?
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I didn’t think it was a tear down comment by McElroy, I guess because I agreed with a lot of it. The biggest point about his mobility. There’s never been any question about his arm strength but I also believe his learning curve was bigger, mainly due to the high school competition he faced. I’d also liked to have seen more improvement from game 1 to the bowl game. Fromm has a much better starting point, but in the end, if he truly pushes for the job, it’ll reflect more on the staff than on either QB
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It’s how it’s phrased, I guess. I fully agree that there needs to be competition at every spot. Everyone can get better at something. But if it’s always negative, tearing someone down, it can undermine the team.
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Why is what Greg McElroy et. al., are saying being connected to the coaching staff? I don’t know if they are more encouraging or less, but they have nothing to do with each other.
No one verbally and mentally tore down qbs like SOS. I though he did ok with that approach.
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“tearing someone down, it can undermine the team.”
Tell that to R. Lee Ermey
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If we could only conscript guys and threaten them with Leavenworth, we’d have something with Gunnery Sgt. Hartman’s approach to motivation.
“Does anybody know who Jack Tatum was?”
“Whenever Jacob Eason fucks up I will not punish him. I will punish all of you! And as I see it you owe me for one RZ interception. On your faces!”
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See Steve Webber……
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There is always a chance…
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Well, the staff is already mishandling the narrative, undermining any leadership Eason may be building up with the team. If Eason is actually replaced by Fromm (minus an injury), then the blame is totally on the staff. And we’re screwed because it means Fromm won’t progress either.
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It’s almost as if the PR-disaster that is the AD’s office is infectious. I tend to agree that Kirby is doing a poor job of PR as it relates to Eason. The proof is in the pudding, so should Eason shine I’ll have to eat crow, but the rumor mill surrounding Eason hasn’t been great (nor verifiable, it should be noted). It just seems like Kirby is putting an intense amount of pressure on Eason as if to see if he can handle it. Let’s hope he can.
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As someone who was very disappointed in the season last year. Not the final record, but how we looked in the last half of the season, I gotta say this SkinnyQB bust talk is idiotic.
The only issue last year with him was that he was a freshman QB in a very tough conference playing with a team learning a new offense. The coaches could have simplified things to make it easier on Jake. Things like pre-snap audibles and reads can be assisted from the sideline. That helps a freshman. Instead, they threw him out there and either had him run a play with no checks or forced him to make the call. As a freshman.
Based on the changes talked about so far this off-season to help him, I think he should be in good shape to see the game slow down in 2017. Which is why it’s SEC East Champs or bust in my mind, IF these are the coaches we want them to be.
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It’s a controversy! ESPN says so. Check back frequently for details. And be sure to patronize our sponsors.
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I love how people are using the clickbait argument. UGA news isn’t driving clicks for ESPN. We’re not Bama or Ohio State. And when the head coach heaps praise on the incoming freshman and says little about the guy in place it’s more than fair to write about what that means.
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The whole SEC is rich food for ESPN. The rest of the country thinks the SEC is over-hyped, over-rated and gets too much attention. So ESPN comes out with negative stuff knowing it will get attention. My Mama said ESPN is the Debil.
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It’s not negative! Damn! Why is this so hard for UGA fans to understand? The head coach is speaking glowingly of his true freshman QB. What are writers supposed to say? They aren’t allowed to watch practice, so the most valuable piece of information is what the coach says.
Eason’s numbers were poor last year. So when you pair that with Kirby’s comments what is the obvious conclusion?
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I know I have a raw nerve for journalists, but they have to produce copy even when there isn’t much to write about, hence my click bait jokes.
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Eason needs to improve and Fromm is doing well is the logical conclusion because that is what has been said. The REPORTERS don’t have to say anything, they should just report.
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That’s what they’re doing. They’re reporting what the head coach is saying, and what the head coach is saying is that Fromm is doing X, Y, and Z and “there’s a real competition there.” Again… they’re not making this stuff up. They’re writing based on what they’re being told.
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Eason is a stud. He made clutch throws, turned the ball over at a rate you’d want out of a senior qb, has a cannon, and can improvise. I just don’t get any of this. Yes, he got scared in the pocket and struggled playing under center, but given that he only played in shotgun in high school and had an amputee for a left tackle, I don’t get it.
Smart said in an offhand way that there’s a little bit of competition, one outlet reports it, another paraphrases it taking it up a level, another outlet gets it and runs with it, and on and on and on. And now it’s a full blown narrative that Fromm is winning the job, Eason sucks, and everyone hates him. Fuck that. I love Eason and cannot wait to have him for 2 more years before he is a first round pick.
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I just don’t see how competition at every position isn’t a good thing.
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Or it could mean Eason just doesn’t have the ability. He had some real mechanical issues last year that aren’t so easily chalked up to coaching. It’s convenient and lazy to always blame someone else.
Wtf is with the squandering rhetoric? Eason hasn’t done a damn thing in college to call him one of the greatest QB talents to grace the hedges. I’m far from sold on this staff but this about creating drama and building a case against this coaching staff. It’s just as realistic to blame everyone else for having unrealistic expectations of a kid who played high school ball in Washington stata.
This is modern day, internet/Bleacher report generated drama setting up a 2nd year head coach and 2nd year QB for failure and folks are actually agreeing with it. 2nd f’n year! Smh
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How many true freshman QBs has Georgia fielded who did what Eason did in the Missouri and Tennessee games?
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Zeier is the only competition for Eason in my opinion. I am passing most of this talk as Smart wanting to motivate every player combined with an overly sensational media.
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Nobody is calling him “one of the greatest QB talents to grace the hedges.” But I agree with most everything you wrote in the your last paragraph.
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I think it is nuts to label Eason a bust based on last year, really over the top. I think it is also unrealistic to expect great success just because recruiting gurus assign someone a 5 star rating. Reality is, he shows promise because of his arm strength to make certain throws but he was very inaccurate, didn’t see the field very well, and still struggles with his footwork and dropping back when taking snaps under center. I am very glad we have him, and expect to see a much better QB in year 2, but some of our fans are not looking at him objectively simply because he wears Red and Black and came in highly rated.
I think McElroy is pretty balanced and his points about Eason versus other other QBs are fair. It doesn’t mean the SC and Miss State QBs will end up being better than Eason when all is said and done, but they did look more comfortable and moved their offenses better. UGA fans should certainly not panic, but is isn’t a slam dunk that we will have the better QB on the field just because Eason was more dominant in HS or in 7 on 7 drills. And he certainly will not be the first 4 or 5 star QB to end up in the middle of the pack. Let’s hope we see Eason rise to display more of his potential this fall, attacking anyone who feels that may not be quite as high as we hope is more R&B blinders, imo.
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Go back and watch Lambert play a football game. Then tell me again about how bad Eason is.
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Can’t we all just get along?
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I can’t help but notice his boy McElroy just glossed over a few things, like:
A. Bentley didn’t play until the season was half over
B. Vs the 2 best defenses he played (UF and Clemson) Bentley’s numbers were not great.
C. That maybe, just maybe, there’s some recency bias given that Bentley got to feast on a mediocre USF defense in the bowl game and put up huge numbers.
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If Eason doesn’t make it, neither will Smart past the contract.
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The comparison with the SC and Miss St. Qb’s is crazy. They are not now nor will they be Pro-Style QB’s. MSU runs the old Tebow offense and SC, needs a running QB to keep the plays alive. Eason never has nor will he ever be a running QB. He did demonstrate that, like Stafford. he can move enough to keep a play alive if the damn offensive line can keep the defense from instantly sacking him. His biggest problems were 1. the WR’s couldn’t get separation, 2. they could not catch his fastball, 3. he waited too long for his WR’s to get open and 4. he should have thrown more to his RB’s on the checkdown. Oh yea QB’s throw off their back foot when they are being knocked on their butts by the defensive lineman. Fromm doesn’t have the arm Eason has and he is not all that fast either. The main thing he has going for him is that he is a Georgia boy and a good leader.
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To me, this whole thing is just a bunch of reporters who need to fill a blog- and nothing is more fun to write about than a QB controversy. The purpose of The Process is to create an organization where one member is not interdependent upon the ultimate success of the machine- the ultimate big team little me. Competition is a vital pillar of the Process. Fromm is creating competition for Eason, who had NO ONE pushing him last year. My belief is that Kirby was excited to see someone pushing his QB. If Kirby is successful in his endeavor to reconstruct an above average program into an elite one, there will be less interdependence on one player. So for that reason, I’m glad that reporters feel the need to even think there is a QB debate.
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How good will Fromm look with defenders on top of him by time he hits his 3 step drop?
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Man I love the offseason. Even the reporters have taken to the fan blogs. Again, am I the only one who heard HM’s interview the other day? Eason is the man. I think Fromm redshirts. I also think if we can field a serviceable offensive line, the tight ends will become the weapons we keep hearing about,and the run game will be much harder to contain. I think if we field a serviceable offensive line, Eason will look a lot more like the star. I like the fact that Fromm is waiting in the wings,
Am I doing the math right? If Fromm redshirts this year and JE leaves early, Fromm will be the heir apparent as a redshirt sophomore with 3 years of eligibility remaining? That is a warm fuzzy backside covering for at least 5 years, good on Coach Smart, if you ask me.
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WTF is a Parrish Walton? Comments read like he thinks he knows what he’s talking about (condescendingly). The fact that a “reporter” hears a comment about a freshman QB from the head coach doesn’t mean that said reporter is omnipotent about what’s going on in the coach’s head or what it suggests about the relative capabilities of two young QBs. The problem is that it’s all simply speculation from some nobody who wants to become somebody by saying “I told you first” that this 18 year old kid wasn’t as good as you thought he was. That’s something any grown man can feel really proud of, right?
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Reporters report what is being said publicly and privately. If no one is speaking on background (privately, without being sourced) all they can go on is what they’re told publicly. All we’ve heard from Kirby is Fromm has been great and is working hard and Eason is coming along. So reporters then report that and many add their “take” on what that might mean. Kirby’s praise of Fromm is noteworthy and markedly different than this time a year ago as it related to Eason. So that in and of itself is noteworthy. Then add in Eason’s rough first year and it’s really not hard to see why these stories are coming out. But sure… keep blaming the media and use it as a bogeyman.
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