Under the Microscope: UGA Quarterback Situation

This is not the season we were all expecting back in January of this year. Georgia was coming off a sweet Sugar Bowl win over Baylor. The win saw the outbreak and career performance of George Pickens as he hauled in a record-breaking day with 12 receptions and 175 yards receiving.

That game looked like the offense under James Coley finally put together a complete offensive performance. Junior quarterback Jake Fromm looked like the Fromm of old as he was spreading the ball around to his different receivers.

Just as hope was creeping into the mind of many fans that we’d see Jake come back for his senior season with hopes of leading the Dawgs to a National Championship, Jake Fromm would ultimately decide to forego his senior season and leave early for the NFL Draft.

This decision would send the Georgia coaching staff into the transfer portal to find their next quarterback. It was clear and evident at the time that the Georgia offense needed a makeover, so they tapped Wake Forest graduate transfer, Jamie Newman, to come to Athens and be their next quarterback.

Newman was a dual-threat quarterback who was a power runner who liked to run over defenders instead of avoiding hits. Not only was he mobile, but he hosted a strong arm and a nose for throwing the football vertically downfield.

Kirby Smart would take his transformation one step further as he hired experienced offensive coordinator and “Air-Raid” guru Todd Monken as his offensive coordinator. It seemed like a match made in heaven as Georgia fans had been crying out for a mobile quarterback and an offensive shift towards a more modernized offensive scheme.

Just as Athens was gearing up for some spring football with a new quarterback and offensive coordinator in place, darkness would strike as the Coronavirus would take the world by storm. COVID-19 would shut down the sports world and the world as a whole, sending countries into full-on lockdowns.

After a few months of being stuck in lockdown, the light was beginning to shine on College Football as the push towards a 2020 season began. Players, coaches, and fans all came together to make sure a football season could take place.

The Bulldog Nation was filled with excitement and optimism of a championship, finally coming home to Athens after a long 40-year drought. A new quarterback and a new coordinator and Georgia looked like a contender. But Kirby Smart wouldn’t stop there.

Near the end of July, Georgia would pull off one of the offseason’s biggest surprises by securing former five-star quarterback JT Daniels’ transfer. Daniels was a redshirt sophomore fresh off an ACL injury he suffered in the season opener of 2019.

Daniels was known as a gunslinger who fit the new air-raid offense like a glove. The arrival of Daniels started the quarterback battle in Athens. A dual-threat quarterback would be taking on a pro-style quarterback.

After a summer full of hype around Wake Forest graduate transfer Jamie Newman, Newman finally was met with competition from former five-star JT Daniels. It was a “quarterback controversy” every program loves to have.

Just weeks into fall camp and the return to football for Georgia. Athens would once again be the epicenter of a big surprise. This time the surprise was not in favor of the Bulldogs as graduate transfer Jamie Newman decided to opt-out of the 2020 season due to the threat of COVID-19.

Newman’s decision was like water off a duck’s back as people immediately started to build the reasoning for Newman’s departure as running away from the competition. Thus began the hype of JT Daniels. Yet all the hype built around a quarterback who wasn’t cleared to play football.

Coach Smart made it clear that the medical clearance of JT Daniels was yet to come and that they hadn’t decided who would be the starter in the season opener against Arkansas.

With no word on the clearance of Daniels, the hype of D’Wan Mathis began to build. People lavishly drew comparisons to the likes of other mobile quarterbacks like former Bulldog DJ Shockley.

Mathis was the starting quarterback of the Arkansas game and struggled out of the gate. A lot of mental mistakes on offense cost Georgia early on. Eventually, the pile-up of mistakes would cost Mathis his job, just six drives into the season.

Former walk-on Stetson Bennett would come off the bench and play in place of Mathis. Bennett was the same quarterback who was told in the offseason that they didn’t see him as anything more than a fourth-string quarterback.

Bennett would lead the Dawgs to a win over the Razorbacks to open up the season. He wasn’t done there as he would receive his first two starts against Auburn and Tennessee. Bennett’s performances in those games gave hope that the quarterback controversy was over.

After struggling in two starts against Alabama and Kentucky, Athens is the epicenter to yet again uncertainty at quarterback. Stetson Bennett is under fire for his performances in the last two games, where he has struggled in the passing game. Kirby Smart is also under fire once again as revisionist history teachers criticize Smart for letting Justin Fields transfer to Ohio State.

With the Florida game on the horizon and the hopes of a National Championship on the brink. We are left to wonder, did the media and the fanbase miss the fact that Jamie Newman was plan A for Georgia? At this moment in time, it seems likely that Jamie Newman was the plan all along.