Georgia Has Clear Advantage Over SEC in 2021
Great quarterback play leads to team success in football. It's the most important singular position in all of sports and headed into the 2021 season, Georgia has a significant advantage over the remainder of the SEC.
Take a look at the position around the league:
SEC East
- Florida: Zero career starts on the roster.
- Tennessee: Presumed starter Harrison Bailey (three starts)
- South Carolina: No clear starter.
- Kentucky: Presumed starter Joey Gatewood (one start)
- Vanderbilt: No clear starter
- Missouri: Presumed starter Connor Bazelak (10 starts)
- Georgia: JT Daniels, (16 starts)
SEC West
- Alabama: Presumed starter Bryce Young (no starts)
- LSU: No clear starter.
- Auburn: Bo Nix, (24 starts)
- Ole Miss: Matt Corral (14 starts)
- Arkansas: No clear starter
- Texas A&M: No clear starter
- Mississippi State: Will Rogers (five starts)
The SEC has a quarterback shortage. There are two known commodities, returning starters that have proven they can excel at the position and that's Corral and Daniels. Nix has plenty of experience at Auburn, but has struggled at points during his career and has yet to complete 60 percent of his passes.
Certainly, Young and Bailey are immensely talented quarterbacks. but there's still a lot of questions to answer. Particularly at Alabama. A new offensive coordinator, the loss of the top two receiving targets, left tackle and running back.
Having such an advantage at the quarterback position may seem commonplace for Georgia. After all, they've had their fair share of talented quarterbacks.
But it's not.
Aaron Murray was at the peak of his powers from 2011 to 2012 for Georgia, but at that time Johnny Manziel was running roughshod on the Southeastern Conference.
Matthew Stafford was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, but his college career was intertwined with Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow at Florida.
David Greene is still the all-time winningest quarterback in Georgia history, but even during his time in the SEC, Eli Manning was at Ole Miss, Chris Leak was getting his start at Florida and Jason Campbell was leading Auburn to 13 wins.
We have to go back to the early 1990s when Eric Zeier was in the top 10 nationally in passing yardage to find a Georgia quarterback that was head and shoulders above the remainder of the conference.
Georgia's expectations for the 2021 season are as high as ever before. It's a common joke that "next year" is always the year, but when there is an advantage at quarterback those aspirations have merit.
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