Georgia football's QB room is the deepest in CFB
With the recently announced addition of former USC Trojan J.T. Daniels, things are looking good down the road for the Georgia Bulldogs and their options at quarterback, even if Daniels can't play in 2020.
The former five-star prospect has three seasons of eligibility remaining.
After reclassifying from an intended 2019 high school graduation, he became the first true freshman signal caller in Southern Cal's storied history to start a season opener in 2018.
In the second quarter of the next year's season opener, Daniels tore his ACL and missed the remainder of 2019, allowing him a medical redshirt.
Daniels would require a waiver from the NCAA to be eligible to suit up for the Bulldogs in the fall, however if he doesn’t receive the waiver he would still be available for a redshirt considering last season he received a medical. You have six years to play four seasons once your eligibility clock begins ticking.
If he applies and is cleared to play, he'll provide immediate depth behind graduate transfer and presumed starter Jamie Newman and alongside junior Stetson Bennett IV and redshirt freshman D'Wan Mathis (who was recently cleared to play following 2019 brain surgery).
Early enrollee Carson Beck would likely redshirt this year if Daniels is granted immediate eligibility.
This poses the question of whether or not the Silver Britches will have a quarterback competition between Newman and Daniels. As a freshman at USC, Daniels beat out every quarterback despite not having attended spring camp. He retained his starting job in 2019 prior to his knee injury.
If Daniels sits out, 2021's Georgia Bulldogs can juggle three years of eligibility from Daniels, one from Bennett, three from Mathis, and three or four from Beck. Georgia also expects to bring in a local five-star quarterback in commit Brock Vandagriff, who, as with Beck, is a candidate for a redshirt in a freshman season behind a group of experienced field generals.
The second scenario provides even more questions: Somebody's gotta transfer, right? If so, who transfers? Is Vandagriff too talented to redshirt?
After a less-than-stellar display in the Dawgs' 2019 passing game, Kirby Smart and company are hoarding quarterbacks capable of throwing the deep ball to balance the offense under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
As Vandagriff told 247Sports.com, "There is always going to be competition at a place like UGA. That's why people come to play here."
One thing is for sure, if there’s a deeper QB depth chart in the country, we haven’t found it.
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