There was a time about 17 months ago when the current QB1 of the Georgia football program got to meet the next guy who would rise to that role a little over halfway through the 2020 season. This was when Jake Fromm met JT Daniels.

Daniels, like Fromm in 2017, would also quicken the pulse of DawgNation whenever he let one fly. It took place in the summer before Fromm’s junior year. It was before the second year at USC for Daniels.

Nobody knew what the future would hold for either of those guys. But they met in Louisiana at that Valhalla for young quarterbacks at the Manning Passing Academy.

Daniels has said in a few interviews now that was the first time he got a taste of the South. Trees as far as the eye could see. It was also the first time Fromm got to see what Daniels was all about, too.

As these things go, Fromm is now in the NFL. Daniels portal-ed his way to Athens and waited on his knee to get right. He’s the triggerman now. Fromm is now just another passionate alum of the program watching what the Bulldogs do every Saturday on a hotel TV in the NFL.

Former 3-year starting QB Jake Fromm was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Georgia. (Buffalo Bills)/Dawgnation)

What did Fromm see out of Daniels in the summer of 2019?

“Man, I thought JT was awesome,” Fromm said this week. “Man I just honestly I was surprised like ‘Man this guy he’s a good dude’ and I thought ‘man this guy is the real deal’ and he can obviously sling a football and super proud of him you know the way he’s leading and representing and playing good ball right now.”

Fromm felt back then that Daniels was also a thinking man’s quarterback who understood the game, what defenses were trying to do and then where to go with the ball.

“He definitely seems like he loves football and anybody that loves football is going to know a lot about it and want to learn more about it,” Fromm said this week.

What has he seen from his play so far?

“I honestly didn’t expect anything different,” Fromm said. “I’m glad he’s healthy and glad he’s out leading the team well.”

The former 3-year starter is now watching the ‘Dawgs every week. Pulling hard for all the guys he knows well on the team. He said it is a lot of fun for him to see those guys play well.

“Just the relationships I have with so many guys still on the team,” he said. “It is fun watching them play. It is fun kinda thinking through alright ‘hey what will we do here in this situation’ and you see it happen on Saturday. So that’s always fun. Definitely watching whenever I can.”

He had a few words of support for his former backup Stetson Bennett IV earlier this year. That basically centered on week-to-week preparation for each opponent.

“I talked a little bit to the quarterbacks kind of early in the year and then kind of just took hands off and let them do their thing here lately,” Fromm said. “It was good fun. It has been fun watching them and super proud of them.”

What does he see out of Georgia and the new-look Todd Monken offense? He had a quick chuckle before he answered that question.

“For me just watching it you know you are always going to see a lot of the kind of similarities just ingrained into the Georgia brand of football,” he said. “But you definitely see some different things in the run game and in the passing game. There’s a lot of different things but you still see those same core Georgia brand kind of schemes and passing concepts that just make Georgia Georgia.”

Fromm’s comments here are a part of a long and wide-ranging discussion that will appear in their entirety in a special “DawgNation Conversation” across our channels later this month.

Jake Fromm is the No. 3 QB in Buffalo during his rookie NFL season. He’s decided to let that full bead grow all the way out in 2020. (Buffalo Bills)/Dawgnation)

SENTELL’S INTEL

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