Jacob Eason had a solid freshman season in Athens. He was rated as the nation’s No. 2 pro-style QB this time a year ago. But the nation’s No. 3 pro-style quarterback also enrolled at UGA this month, too.
That would be Jake Fromm.
Fromm has been on campus for three weeks and already checked off the UGA trifecta. He’s gotten lost, missed a bus and been snared in the web of Parking Services.
But he said he’s already got a handle on the playbook.
Will there be competition between Eason and Fromm? There better be.
That’s the new Georgia. Competition — the fundamental element of a winning program — happens every day and at every position.
Entire rosters get better that way.
When Fromm was indirectly asked about Eason Thursday at the Touchdown Club of Atlanta’s 2016 awards banquet, he delivered an impressive reply.
“I love Georgia football first and foremost,” Fromm said in the video that’s featured above. “I’m a competitor. I love to compete and I am going to go in and make him better. I’m going to make myself better and I’m going to make the University of Georgia better.”
That effort was maybe even more impressive considering the moment. A seasoned local lawyer asked him that. His response came on the fly in front of a packed ballroom.
That came amid an informal Q&A after he accepted the first Mr. Georgia Football Award.
Georgia’s latest preferred walk-on commit
Brooks Buce committed to Georgia yesterday. He announced that decision last night at that same awards banquet. The senior from Greater Atlanta Christian chose the preferred walk-on route over full rides at the service academies, among other options.
He said that he will look forward to the competition against current starter Rodrigo Blankenship. Blankenship is another preferred walk-on and the fact that he’s still not on scholarship despite his selection to the Freshman All-SEC team has been mentioned a time or two.
“Obviously it is going to be competition and I’m looking forward to that,” Buce said. “I always like competition. Rodrigo and I will have a good time competing against each other.”
He visited UGA on Wednesday while all of the coaches were all out recruiting. Buce said he was encouraged that Georgia coach Kirby Smart called him on Thursday morning and extended the preferred walk-on offer.
“They originally told me that it was going to be Sunday and that was kind of unexpected,” Buce said. “Which is good.”
Smart told him that his greatest asset at the outset of his UGA career would be his kickoffs.
“He said that’s definitely something they need and that’s definitely going to be something that I am going to compete for,” Buce said.
Why Georgia?
“Georgia has been my dream school,” Buce said. “I was just really blessed and I felt like that was the right fit for me.”
He said he will be able to receive the Hope Scholarship at Georgia. That’s another reason why the preferred walk-on opportunity makes sense for him and his family.
What does he bring to the program?
“I think my biggest asset would be distance,” he said. “I think I had four field goals over 50 (yards) this year and I had 75 for 82 (kickoffs) that went for touchbacks.”
He said he doesn’t plan to wear his helmet during his first interviews at Georgia.
Buce committed to Shane Beamer last night.
The weekend visitors
DawgNation has gotten a pretty good read that there are three remaining spots left in the Class of 2017. That’s the number that has been populated along the recruiting trail. Who’s expected into town this weekend?
- Buce said he was going to return to campus this weekend for an unofficial visit
- 4-star WR and longtime UGA target Nico Collins will also be in town.
- 4-star UGA commit Tray Bishop has also scheduled his only official visit for this weekend. But DawgNation has not been able to confirm that visit in the last 24 hours.
- American Heritage 4-star OG Tedarrell “TD” Slaton is also expected according to a source. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 2 OG for this cycle but could play in the trenches on either side of the ball.
What else did Jake Fromm say?
He’s already in that playbook. He said that he’d “no doubt” be ready with what he needs to master heading into spring practice.
Fromm even said that he’d be on track to do so if spring drills came at the end of next month.
What’s been the coolest part of college so far? He didn’t name the night life or anything to do with co-eds.
“Right now I love the lifting part of it,” Fromm said. “I love the lifting part of it. That’s something that is kind of sacred to a football player is getting in that weight room and grinding and being with your guys. I’m really trying to figure out who’s who and who is going to help you in the long run.”
He said that the quarterbacks get a daily test on what they need to learn. Fromm said that’s he’s received some very good scores on those exams so far.
“We’re meeting every single day,” Fromm said. “Right now we are learning a lot about defensive assignments and defensive alignment. Really trying to figure out what the defense is going to do before we ever snap the ball. We’ve really been diving into that and as soon as (UGA offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney gets back from being on the road we are going to get into the offense and that will be great.”
He already knows the UGA film room is “always open.”
“You don’t need a key,” Fromm said. “The door is always open. You’ve got a little fingerprint (thing) and you get into the building then all the other doors are open.”
What does he need to do in order to give him the best chance to — as stated above — help the University of Georgia get better?
“I have got to learn,” Fromm said. “When I learn, I have to be able to tell the other guys what they are doing and what they are doing wrong and how I am going to fix it. If I don’t know what I am doing, then I can’t tell anyone else how to do anything and that’s just not being a good leader. So really if I learn and know what I am doing then I can increase my leadership role on the team. That would help me out extremely.”