Where does Jake Fromm already rate among Georgia’s all-time QBs?

After two seasons, where does Jake Fromm rank among the all-time UGA greats?

Jeff Sentell/DawgNation

Posted 2 weeks ago

Could the following quote apply to Georgia junior QB Jake Fromm?

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Mark Twain gets the credit for it. But Google has Twain borrowing that phrase from British prime minister Benjamin Disrael for the record.

Is that in any way like Fromm and the talented backfields Georgia has brought to bear over the last two seasons? Was that (mostly) Nick Chubb and Sony Michel and D’Andre Swift and an ascending O-line carrying the heavy loads there?

How much credit should Fromm get for elevating the program since he took the reins in 2017?

The All-American candidate has a sterling 24-5 record in two seasons as the quarterback of record for Georgia. That mark will include the following contests which can be defined as some true degree of difficulty games:

1 National Championship against Alabama
2 SEC Championship games
1 Rose Bowl against a Heisman Trophy QB and a future No. 1 overall pick
1 road game against a Top 10 team in Auburn
Another road game against a Top 15 team (LSU) in one of the SEC’s toughest venues
2 Georgia-Florida tilts in Jacksonville
1 Sugar Bowl against Texas

Of course, the record points to the Bulldogs owning a 4-5 record in those contests. Some draw a parallel to Fromm not being able to close out those big games. A truly great quarterback would do that, right?

That’s a popular topic to some. Yet they don’t apply the same logic to the other end of that argument. If an elite run game actually carried the Bulldogs to those big games, why is Fromm’s resume saddled with not being out to close out the big ones?

Is he a first-round pick? The NFL scouting opinions do vary. Of course, those talking parts are all highly subjective.

Opinions also vary across the Georgia fan base with that, too. Those “damned” statistics are a lot less subjective. Those are just cold hard numbers.

Check out the roll call below of what Fromm has done so far in the SEC. He’s accomplished it all in what should be the two worst years for any college quarterback.

When placed against the backdrop of the greatest QBs in Georgia history, his stat profile already holds up with the best to ever play the position at Georgia.

That matter appears to be a lot less subjective.

Aaron Murray - Georgia football — *Former Georgia QB Aaron Murray is clearly one of the program’s all-time greats at that position. (Jason Getz/AJC file photo)*

SEC Titles

(Starting QBs that led their teams to this feat at UGA)

SEC championship QBs	No.
Buck Belue (1980, 1981)	2
Johnny Rauch (1946, 1948)	2
*8 others (Jake Fromm and eight others	1

Fromm has put together two strong seasons, but the rest of his career remains to be seen. Perhaps the only proper statistical tool is to gauge how Fromm stacks up compared the all-time greats with what they did in their first two seasons in Athens.

For the purposes of this exercise, some might send some four-letter words this way when they see true greats like Zeke Bratkowski, Mike Cavan, Ray Goff, Andy Johnson, Johnny Rauch and Fran Tarkenton missing from this comparison.

Buck Belue is a good example here. The 1980 national championship QB (3,864 career passing yards) played in a different era of college football and his time was already 39 years ago.

It is an even bigger leap for a lot of those all-timers.

Tarkenton, a Hall of Famer in both college and pro football, threw for 2,100 yards and 18 TDs after his three-year Georgia career wrapped up in 1960. If someone was able to devise a formula to adjust those numbers to 2019 standards in the same manner we see with inflation, it would be an interesting find.

That said, there are a number of notable Georgia QBs who competed in the modern era of SEC football where it was a small matter to see a quarterback attempt 25 passes every Saturday afternoon.

It is a tough list. Georgia’s Mike Bobo, who only threw for more than 2,500 yards and 15 touchdowns one time in his career, does not even crack it.

Where does Fromm rank among the likes of Quincy Carter, David Greene, Aaron Murray, Matthew Stafford and Eric Zeier? (NOTE: Murray and Greene had redshirt seasons before they emerged to claim the starting job.)