UGA sends out an important offer to 4-star in-state dual-threat QB Justin Fields
There are everyday offers, but then there are ones that cause folks to look at Georgia’s recruiting picture in a new way.
That’s the case with the offer Georgia extended on Friday to Harrison 4-star junior QB Justin Fields. The dual-threat QB told DawgNation earlier this week he hoped to be able to share something in a few days.
Well, a tweet on Friday morning showed just exactly what.
Blessed to have received an offer from UGA!! #godawgs ??⚫️ pic.twitter.com/eKHkxtTwt7
— Justin Fields (@justnfields) November 18, 2016
It seems like something was in the works.
“It is just great to get an offer from them,” Fields told DawgNation on Friday morning. “Coach Smart is a great coach and they have a bright future.”
His Harrison Hoyas have a big second-round state playoff matchup with Tucker tonight and the timing of the offer is very interesting. Fields explained why.
“Coach Chaney and I talked on Saturday after the Auburn game and he said he was going to talk it over with Coach Smart and get back to me this week,” Fields said.
The result of that conversation seems fairly self-explanatory.
RELATED: Get to know Justin Fields
There are a lot of moving parts to consider. The offer UGA extended to Fields is just the third QB offer for Georgia in the 2018 class. The previous offers had been to 5-star Trevor Lawrence and 4-star Emory Jones.
Jones, another dual-threat QB, committed to Ohio State this summer. So this is not like the Bulldogs just offered their first dual-threat QB in years.
Lawrence also just visited Georgia this weekend and doesn’t look like he’s close to publicly committing to either one of his top schools (Clemson or Georgia) at this point.
Fields also visited Georgia on Saturday. His sister — a sophomore at Harrison High — has already committed to play college softball in Athens.
It seems like the timing of his visit and then this offer will no doubt have everyone wondering just exactly what is at work here.
Here’s what I think: This is Georgia finally realizing that Fields is too good of a player to wait any longer to offer a scholarship. That’s it. Case closed. For now. No need to dabble into Conspiracy Theory 102 here.
Fields already has more than 30-plus scholarship offers. He’s considering strong interest from schools like North Carolina, Penn State and Tennessee at this point.
What does this offer say about Georgia’s chances with Lawrence? Fields told DawgNation recently that could be the reason why he had yet to receive an offer from Clemson or Georgia.
He casually stated he felt both schools were waiting to see what Lawrence was going to do. That’s because Lawrence is a tremendous prospect who is rated as the nation’s No. 1 overall player for t2018.
Another big reason for the slow play at first was because Clemson and Georgia already have an abundance of young QB depth at that position. The Bulldogs are in great shape with the ability shown so far by freshman 5-star Jacob Eason and they’ll add the nation’s No. 3 pro-style QB for 2017 with Jake Fromm of Houston County.
Fields — who showed great poise in addressing the topic — told me recently he was not going to be affected by the timing of a Georgia offer should he finally receive one. He gets it.
The junior carries a 3.9 grade-point-average and wants to major in business. He simply saw a few business decisions at work in regard to the Lawrence situation.
“I’m not offended by it of course and I get it,” Fields said then. “It doesn’t matter to me whether they need to wait on a guy like Trevor first. My decision is going to be about me and how I fit into that team and their offense and what they offer for my degree, too. I’m not going to let having to wait on that factor into how much I like a school and how well of a fit it can be.”
He simply might be closer to a decision than Lawrence at this time. He indicated that to me in our last conversation.
I’d advise folks to resist the urge to read too much into this regarding Lawrence. This may be more of a situation of Fields and UGA rather than the dominoes falling with Lawrence.
Fields has had an outstanding junior season. This could mean that Georgia believes Fields has raised his stock high enough to earn the same offer Jones received before he chose to commit to Ohio State.
Jones had an offer in the same class with Lawrence for months before he committed. It looks like the Bulldogs now value Fields and his potential on the same level as they did with Jones.
Fields, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder, is rated as the nation’s No. 183 prospect overall prospect for the Class of 2018.
I’ll share two other recent comments from Fields about the potential of playing at UGA.
“I feel like having a dual-threat quarterback at Georgia would change things up a bit,” Fields said. “I think an exciting player who can make plays with his arm and his legs would be something Georgia hasn’t had in awhile.”
He’d have to compete with Eason and Fromm, but he wouldn’t back down from that. That’s the right answer. Any quarterback that would be affected by that has bigger problems.
“I’m a different player than those guys,” Fields said. “I can throw but also bring the run game along and those two guys are pretty much mainly pocket passers.”
Hunker down for DawgNation’s latest news. Download our app: http://dawgs.us/2ctFtTG
Follow Jeff Sentell on Twitter for the latest on who’s on their way to play Between the Hedges. Unless otherwise indicated, player rankings and ratings are from the 247Sports Composite.
