I don’t think handling the starting quarterback situation is as important a task for Smart as some do — what would the world be like without quarterback controversies? — but I don’t think he’s ignoring it, either. The main thing for him is to be transparent with both Eason and Fromm… not to mention their teammates. And it sounds like Smart’s on the mother:
Smart on the quarterbacks this week: “They’ve both been great. They understand the situation. We have talked to them and explained the situation. They both completely understand, and they see it from our perspective, the team’s perspective.”
Derek Mason may not care, but Kirby Smart does.
Get The Picture 
QB controversies are easy layups for lazy reporters. Ho-hum. Like the Senator sez, as long as Roquan and Company keep up their play, we’d be fine with Brice.
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Er…..no. Brice would throw INTs and lose the game. Sorry.
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wrong! We’d punt it back to the opponent and count on our Defense to score.
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I think saying “we’d be fine” with Brice is taking it a little too far, but I certainly think we’ll be fine with either Eason or Fromm behind center.
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Do you know how many 3rd down quick-kicks we could do and pin the opponent inside the 10 with Brice at QB? Think about it!
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Don’t know if you are serious but the quick kick is a seriously underused tool that has been used by teams with struggling offenses (and good defenses) to beat teams with good both. It ought to be in every coaches bag of tricks.
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Clear and open communication works best. If they understand going in, then their feelings are less likely to be hurt. I’m still wondering if there is an option to give both quality playing time. Not sure how Kirby feels about that. Is there a world where the starter plays 3qtrs and the back up one? Of course that’s if the game allows. I would understand staying with one QB if the offense is clicking and you’re in a close game.
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Unless, of course, you’re Spurrier. The man did seem to like running his quarterbacks in and out for no apparent reason when he was in Gainesville.
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It always seemed to me that fucking with the QBs head was half the fun for Spurrier. If he had multiple QBs, well, then that was just nirvana for him.
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I continue to believe Fromm won’t be unseated. Too hot of a hand to fold.
Eason transfers after this year. No way he stays at UGA if he doesn’t start. Lets just hope he doesn’t transfer into another SEC school.
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Wazzu. Or Washington.
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Kirby won’t allow him to.
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Hot hand? Fromm threw no less than three passes in the first quarter on Saturday that any team better than Tennessee would have picked off. We could have started that game in a huge hole. Many of y’all speak about Fromm as if we’re winning these games with his arm, but we’re not. We’re winninf because of lights out defense and a run game that is bowling people over. Fromm is doing a nice job, but I honestly do not get how anybody takes away from that performance that Fromm is the “hot hand.” We would have been beaten and beaten badly had he played that way against Auburn or Alabama.
Don’t get me wrong – if Fromm is the guy, I will be cheering him on just the same, but the attitude that “it’s Fromm’s job” confounds me. If Fromm was from Missouri, and not Warner Robins, would so many Georgia fans be bullish on him being the starter?
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Chili,
Totally agree with you on Fromm as a possible greater liability than some are willing to recognize/admit. I had the same thought about his iffy passes while watching them last Saturday — specifically, what would happen if he’d thrown them against Bama.
Probably points for Bama. That’s what.
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I gained some very useful insight from Greg McElroy while watching the Florida game. Who ever thought they would type that sentence? Jim McElwain was McElroy’s quarterback coach at Bama so he had a good bit of insight into what the coach is looking for. Greg talked about making good decisions and why Del Rio had been named the starter over Franks. While Franks seemed to be doing okay when he came in for the injured Del Rio, he did, in fact, make a string of bad decisions. All of which he got away with. But as McElroy correctly pointed out, he won’t get away with those decisions in the film room. So, while a guy may be getting results on the field, or at least not screwing up, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s doing what the coaches want him to do. Something to keep in mind as we monitor the starting quarterback situation.
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Safe to say, Kirby’s analysis of the situation probably goes a lot deeper than the “we’re 5-0 with Fromm” analysis that most of our fans fall back on.
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and winning with a kick ass kicking and returning game. STs if you will.
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5 – 0
Fromm also scrambled for two TD in that UT game. Jacob can’t do that..
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Trent Thompson could have scrambled through that wide open field for a TD.
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My thoughts precisely.
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While it is true that Fromm has made some bone-headed, freshman mistakes with regard to his choice of which receiver to throw to, he has more times than not correctly read the defensive alignments and made the correct choice as to where to deliver the ball.
You may not necessarily agree, but even with his mistakes and other near-misses, Fromm’s decision making and passing accuracy, especially on the short and medium range routes, are far superior to that of Eason.
Yes, Fromm may not be able to throw it 65 yards down the field like Eason can, but the beauty of it is…he doesn’t have to.
Fromm knows the playbook, reads defenses well enough to be able to change the play whenever the need arises, and usually puts the team in better position to be successful.
Eason had an entire 12 game season plus a bowl game, two spring practices and two fall camps to improve on the results of a solid, albeit unspectacular, first year under center. He has also had ample opportunity to work on his footwork and throwing mechanics.
To what end?
Right out of the gate, versus Appalachian State, he was wildly off target…again…with every throw except one.
Then, when he came into the game against UT… to knock the rust off…what did he do?
On his first and only pass attempt of the day, just like every other time, he locked in on one specific receiver and launched a too high, warp speed rocket shot at Jason Stanley…from like 6 yards away. And, btw, why would he pick Stanley to lock onto anyway? The kid hasn’t caught a pass in like two years! (Although he has dropped a bunch)
Next time he is in a game, (and if you’re like me you’ll probably have to wait until you get back home and watch it on the DVR) look at Eason’s eyes when the camera shows a close-up of him…he looks… um…overwhelmed sometimes. I’ve heard some say they think Eason plays scared.
I don’t know if there’s any truth to that, but I do know that seeing is believing. And though the samples I’ve seen have been small ones, what I’ve seen is a sophomore QB that hasn’t really improved that much from his freshman season.
It is my opinion that Fromm’s football IQ and quarterbacking skills, combined with his natural leadership abilities make him a better choice to lead this team, at least right now. Like CKS said, whomever practices the best and exhibits the best leadership qualities will determine who starts.
Right now, that’s Fromm.
The team trusts him, and they will absolutely rally around him, and even if he were to begin to struggle significantly, they would lift him up by simply playing harder for him, until he gets back on track.
I’m not sure Eason is there yet.
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There’s a lot of subjective and inferenced bullshit in here.
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Fromm is 50 of 84 (just under 60% completion rate) with 8 touchdown passes and two interceptions. Yeah, he really sucks. You mentuion the “potential” interceptions but you don’t mention the dropped passes that should have been completions.
It’s not his job to win games with his arm. His job is to manage the game and complete enough passes to open up the running game. He has done that and even as the Senator pointed out earlier this week, the kid is clutch.
Fromm is our best option. Period.
Oh, and I like this…
“We could have started the game in a huge hole.”
You mean the game we ended up winning 41-0? Were you watching the same game I was watching? Yeah, that huge hole would have been a real mountain for our defense…and offense.
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“Even as”? LOL.
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Did you not write that earlier in the week?
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You make it sound as if I made that observation grudgingly.
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I apologize. Poor wording on my part. That was not my intent.
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I wasn’t offended. No worries.
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I think Fromm will continue to be the starter. And for the same reason I think he probably should be. At this point he’s clicking with the offense. Throw Eason in there and the whole experience of the offense melding with Fromm over the last four games is lost.
The only argument I see against this logic is that CKS and Chaney think that Eason really is a much better quarterback. And they can afford to have some growing pains over the next two games plus a bye week to get the offense clicking with Eason before Jacksonville.
All that to say, regardless of who starts Saturday I’ll assume that the coaches are following one of these two lines of thought.
That being said, if they do some weird mess like throw in a different QB every other drive then I’ll question their sanity.
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Georgia managed it well enough with Greene and Shockley. It’s been done before. I can’t think of a situation in Kirby’s past where he observed it, but I’m guessing he has.
I’ve worried about it, but for some reason I’m not now. I guess I haven’t quite found my seat on the Kirby train, but I’m definitely on board.
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Yes it was handled nicely by CMR..but you might remember the meme that built inside of the sports media’s thick noggins that there was a QB controversy and some tried to hint or insinuate that there was a racial component to it. It all worked out well, as CMR, DG and DJS were all class acts. Damn good Dawgs all.
CKS will handle this well..but there will be shit-stirrers, count on it.
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Man..was that nicely placed right above Mr. Burton’s post or what?
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Except in the 2002 UF game. DG was playing lights out. DJ came in, threw a pick 6, and by the time DG came back in, his hot hand had cooled considerably. Also, didn’t DJ have a couple of injuries that took him out of the rotation?
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They aren’t going to fuck this up. Fromm will continue to start. Hopefully Eason continues to get garbage time reps that get him comfortable. Of course, we have to hope he actually takes these reps seriously and plays hard. Might be a big ask for a kid his age with that personality.
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You mention personality…do you have some first-hand (or even second-hand anecdotal) knowledge of Eason’s personality?
I ask because (disclaimer: I know looks can be deceiving) I think Eason doesn’t look very engaged when they show him on the sideline. And when they showed CKS talking to him during last game, right before he put him in the game, Eason’s face looked to me (I know I can’t read his mind) like he was looking at Kirby thinking, “Yeah, yeah, whatever dude.”
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He actually seemed to be saying “yes sir” 3 times while Kirby was speaking to him just prior to sending him in. Watch the clip. Looked both respectful and engaged to me.
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You’re assessment is fair. And I can’t argue you with you. As I said, I’m not in the guy’s head. I don’t know. It was just my impression and I’m willing to admit it might be totally wrong.
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This seems to be the latest narrative for Eason. Sure doesn’t seem like the kind of personality Smart would tolerate, let alone reward by naming him as the starter.
Then again, I didn’t get a degree in long-distance psychological analysis, so I’ll defer to your expertise.
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This is an excellent point about what Smart would tolerate. I think we can assume he won’t tolerate any bad attitudes.
BUT.
It’s more fun to speculate about stuff we don’t have first-hand knowledge about. Isn’t that what this whole blog is based on? Ha.
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That’s a pretty weak cover-up for a shitty deed, Jared. Tainting a kid’s reputation on what you read in his facial expression on television is very f’ed up.
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Don’t give me a hard time, man.
The context of my comment is trying to find out what Jack was talking about when he mentioned Eason’s personality.
I merely expressed my impression of a few seconds of seeing Eason on the sideline on television….and I made it clear I realized my impression could be mistaken.
Plus I don’t think my comments here about what I “think” about someone’s demeanor affects anyone’s reputation.
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I accept that..fair enough. But there is an element that is trying to, without any real knowledge or facts to back it up, paint Eason as having a bad personality, poor leadership qualities, etc. It’s subtle most of the time, but it’s there.
I won’t argue with anyone who says it isn’t because it’s harder to win an argument here than it is with the wife.
Like everyone else claims to, I wish for the best for both kids and the program.
There’s an answer to it and the coaches will figure it out.
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“Peggy Noonan scaled the wall of Independence Hall, threw one ample leg over the rail and then the other as she climbed into the cupola at the top, and all in black, ninja-like, she surveyed the Hall of Presidents at Disney World. Like a plump, blonde spider, she rapidly descended silently, deadly, on a bungee cord until she was dangling face-to-face with the animatronic version of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest president of the last half of the last century, maybe the greatest president ever….
She clicked the reset button on Reagan, and whirring and creaking, he stirred to life. Larger than life, actually, but the noises he made were remarkably like the ones he made in real life.”
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Damn DIF. You been hanging out with Will Trane?
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We’ll need more than 150 yd/game passing to beat Auburn and Alabama. One of them needs to pick it up.
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‘We’ll need more than 150 yd/game passing to beat Auburn and Alabama. One of them needs to pick it up.’…the ‘one’ that needs to improve is Chaney. Elite athletes surround our QBs….
The hand is only going to do what the brain tells it to do.
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Yeah I’ve been concerned with Chaney’s ability to make the right reads and hit the open man.
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Fromm delivers accurate passes most of the time, unlike Eason I’m afraid.
Many times his passes are dropped by our still mostly unproven group of receivers. Godwin catches most everything that comes his way, but Ridley, Wims, and Hardman are pretty much 50/50 at best.
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I really think there’s a much better chance that Eason starts Saturday than a lot of commenters here think.
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I would agree and go on to say the odds are good that the goods are odd.
Eason has a better chance for sure…I bet it’s at least 50/50
Seriously, I’ll be at the game and yeah…I really do feel like the talk amongst the fan base is just talk and that this may be the best chance to see a start if not at least a good bit of PT…start and play the first 2-3 series, rotate…I don’t know
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It’s really a perfect situation for Kirby to start him. It’s a low risk, low pressure environment, if Eason plays well and finds his rhythm, great, if he struggles in the first half, he can always put Fromm back in. We’ve got two games against weak opponents the next two weeks so it’s a perfect opportunity to get Eason’s legs back under him if Kirby still thinks he’s our starter.
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It’s the perfect place to start him. I have a strong suspicion that if Eason trots out onto the field at home to start in place of Fromm, he’ll get a less than warm welcome from many in the stands. And woe be unto him when he throws his first bad pass.
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If any Georgia fan were to boo Eason coming out on the field I would hope the nearest real Georgia fan would shut their mouth for them.
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Yikes I am agreeing with you again. If anyone boos ESPN if he starts they need their DAWG ticket revoked.
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I’d say Missouri is the ideal place to start him. Have you observed that Run-away Defense they keep trotting out there? Vandy may have some pieces to force the issue away from the rush game.
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Though now that Russ mentions it, maybe the Road setting is more appropriate for some meaningful game time.
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Sure hope the team doesn’t judge the next two opponents as “weak” like you are. The same weak team we’re playing Saturday beat us at home last year. If the team looks at any opponent on our schedule as anything other than a potential loss waiting to happen, we can pretty much throw away any chance at going undefeated this season. I happen to think we have a very good chance of doing that very thing as long as we remain focused on what’s in front of us and not what is coming down the road.
“Humility is only a week away!”
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So did Tennessee.
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I’m not on the team, in case that was unclear. I trust Kirby and the players to prepare. You can sit there and talk up Vanderbilt like they’re Alabama all you like – I won’t. They aren’t even close to our stratosphere, and I expect us to hand them their ass.
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My guts say so. But my gut can be achy at times.
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It would be nice to see Eason start on Saturday if for no other reason than to throw Mason a curve ball. Since Mason has accused Smart of playing games
Per Mason “I believe Eason is an extremely talented quarterback. But that’s up to Kirby who he decides to go with. I mean he’s not fooling me, if that’s what we think we’re doing here. That young man, Fromm’s won ballgames. He just came off a [41-0] win.”
I would be fun to see Mason with egg on his face even if Fromm went in after the first possession.
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1) Eason needs the reps
2) It is a low risk game
3) It would make Mason look foolish after his comments yesterday (this would just be a bonus)
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Well, one thing is for certain, you are sure rooting for Eason to get out there over Fromm, and have made no bones about it. I sure hope that Eason has improved. If he looks like he did last year, then he will most likely end up holding the clipboard.
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I posted this on Sunday and I’ll say it again. Ease up on Ramsey. His family lost their home in the hurricane. He doesn’t need any more snark from us.
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He came back for his senior year to give us some depth at the position…if you ask me he is a DGD.
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100%. RAMSEY IS A DGD.
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Yup, DGD and has always been willing to do whatever helps the team and never complained.
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+100
DGD that came back to help the team and deserves our respect.
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I agree and I’m actually a little disappointed he’s not being used as the holder after the tcu game. If there was a 4th and short to medium, mid-field punt team package for Ramsey, we could probably get a time out like on Saturday every time, or at least keep the defense in punt-safe.
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Good use of his talent on the Scout team.
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Ramsey is and always has been a DGD the fans that tear him down are a disgrace.
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I think folks are jumping to conclusions when they assume Eason has developed a proficiency running Chaney’s offense. Or at least is far ahead of Fromm. With every practice and game that passes, Fromm closes the gap on Eason’s experience advantage.
Sure, Fromm made some poor throws, although it seemed to me part of the reason was confusion on the route(s). But one can’t automatically state Eason would’ve done better (or worse).
It’s comparing 2017 apples to 2016 oranges, but Fromm seems far more comfortable handling Chaney’s offense than Eason did. And there’s no doubt that more of the playbook is being implemented. Until he actually performs unacceptably bad and/or blows a game, I don’t see how Fromm loses the job.
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Perhaps Kirby would prefer not to wait until we lose a game to fix an issue.
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Given that the playbook is vastly different from last year, namely a renewed appreciation of the shotgun, I’d like to see Eason get a serious chance to run the offense. Eason (and everyone) struggled last year when we lined up under center and packed everyone in tight. When they finally spread out the formation and went shotgun, Eason was much better. Just look at the TCU bowl game. First half, stagnant and packed in tight. Second half, much better running and throwing from a more varied formation.
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Fromm hasn’t struggled like that though, has he? Under center or in the gun, Fromm has played well and led the team successfully.
Don’t screw with the chemistry this team has developed, Kirby!
If Eason is a true team player, he’ll understand that perspective.
If not, he was never going catch lightning in a bottle with this team anyway.
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You said yourself that comparing 2016 Eason to 2017 Fromm is apples to oranges and you are absolutely correct.
Fromm has the luxury of a much improved offensive line, an actual run game, a place kicker that is much more consistent, and a defense that is so nasty a punt isn’t a bad play.
Eason had none of those things plus a first year HC attempting to implement a culture change and instill a style of play the team wasn’t equipped to play.
Eason won the job before the season started . The assumption by a lot of fans is that he didn’t improve at all over the offseason and is the exact same QB as last year. If that is the case then a)Fromm should continue to start and b)Cheney should be run out of town on a rail for neglecting to develop the most important position on the offense.
The coaches are going to put the best player at all 22 positions. As a fan I would like to see what Eason can do before we condemn him to the scrap heap and ship him off to UW or where ever. In order to beat Auburn, Bama, and Clemson we are going to have to throw the football. Most of the time into small windows which requires velocity on the ball. Fromm will eventually be able to make those throws off of anticipation which will make up for his lack of arm strength (a la Aaron Murray) but he isn’t there yet.
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Well said.
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You actually believe Murray lacked arm strength?
Really?
Murray could make every throw…no quarterback in UGA history ever threw a better deep ball than Aaron Murray.
Do you know how many team and SEC records he holds?
Yards? Completions? TD’s?
How many other QB’s do you know of that threw for 3000 yards or more in four straight seasons?
Lack of arm strength?
Are you friggin’ kidding me?
Fromm threw for over 12,000 yards in one of the toughest football classifications in the state. He knows all about how to throw a football.
An increase in velocity will naturally occur as he gains more experience, and I’ll take touch and accuracy over distance and “strength” every day.
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“Murray could make every throw…no quarterback in UGA history ever threw a better deep ball than Aaron Murray.”
Lol….okay.
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Bingo! DawgZilla
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The RPO touchdown for Fromm has been open all year long. It was finally exercised against UT. That is why I believe when we play against better “D’s” Fromm should be our QB. If we had receivers like the 2 committed for 2019, I would be fine with either.
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