Justin Fields was rated as the No. 2 player in the country coming out of high school. He enrolled early will compete for time with starting QB Jake Fromm and three other walk-ons at Georgia.

It will help him to be there for spring drills.

Fields has been competing hard. Kirby Smart said he has been one of the first players to every drill. That’s good. He’ll have to be that guy. Fromm is that same guy in every competitive setting, too.

Will Fields come out of spring camp as the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart? That does not seem like an overzealous limb-breaking reach.

Fields won the Elite 11 QB competition last summer at Nike headquarters in Oregon. He timed very close to the fastest receivers Georgia signed in the Nike combine testing for its annual “The Opening” showcase.

He measures right at 6-foot-4 and will weigh in around 225 pounds.

What should DawgNation expect from Fields in his first spring practice? Matt Dickmann – his coach at Harrison High School – has a pretty strong idea.

“He will work his tail off until he reaches the top of his game and then he will continue to do so,” Dickmann said. “Right now I would think the big thing for him is just learning the playbook. That’s the big thing. Once he learns the mental aspect of what he needs to do for each play and what the coaching staff wants, the sky is the limit.”

Smart said when he met the media Tuesday that he has seen some of that. He will be eager to see more as spring drills unfold in heated competition. That’s the Georgia Way at every spot on the field.

But Fields has clear Sunday potential at the game’s most important position. That’s not as easy to spot at long-snapper. Those guys are not asked to enroll early as freshmen.

“Nothing is stopping him athletically,” said Dickmann, a 31-year coaching veteran. “There’s no way that will stop him. He checks all the boxes there. They’re going to see someone there at Georgia who is going to be one of the most competitive football players they have ever seen. I think that’s the one thing that just separates him from everyone else. That’s his intelligence and his competitiveness. He’s amazing athletically. The things that he can do.”

What can he not do? Dickmann has fielded that question often over the last year. The breadth of his 31 years of experience in the game allows for some well-shaped insight.

“He’s like one of those athletes that the only thing that is going to stop him is his health,” Dickmann said. “Like with any good or great athlete. You want to stay healthy because to me he’s is one of those guys if he stays healthy he will end up playing on Sundays.”

Sound familiar? It should.

Those were some of the exact same things that DawgNation reported about Fromm this time a year ago, too.