JT Daniels, Jamie Newman Battle Feels Awfully Familiar for Georgia Football
Justin Fields will always be a sore subject with regards to Georgia football fandom. The future first-round draft pick was supposed to be the future of the Georgia football program. Instead, they got 27 completions, 8 total touchdowns, a transfer portal entry, and the chance to watch their guy play in a college football playoff in his first season as Ohio State's starting quarterback.
Instead, Georgia fans got Jake Fromm for one final season in 2019. And how could you blame Kirby Smart? In 2018, he was coming off a national championship appearance and was a 2nd & 26 rail shot from Tua Tagovailoa away from winning the first national title since 1981 with a then-freshman starting quarterback in Jake Fromm.
And despite the early enrollment from Justin Fields, Smart chose to stick with his incoming starter in Fromm, leading to a disgruntled Fields.
Now, two years later, amidst a pandemic and questioned season, Georgia is in an awfully familiar position with Jamie Newman and JT Daniels.
One quarterback has an extraordinarily strong arm, the ability to make every throw on the football field while adding an additional threat to the defense with his legs, though has shown signs of inaccuracies on the intermediate routes.
The other is deadly accurate from within 25 yards, has an efficient and quick release, and the ability to lead an offense though has shown signs of limitations on the deep throws early in his career.
Sounds pretty similar to what Georgia was faced with at the start of 2018 right? Well, partly. Except for this time, there are a few differences.
Todd Monken
Monken's offense is traditionally predicated on driving the ball deep down the field when the opportunity presents itself. In both 2017 and 2018 — the last time Monken had full playcalling duties in the NFL — his offenses finished second in yards per completion at 12.6 & 11.6 respectfully.
For reference, Jake Fromm averaged 4.6 yards per completion a year ago. So, needless to say, Monken's offenses are typically a bit more on the explosive end. Which would lend itself to the quarterback that has the stronger and more accurate deep ball.
Season at risk in general
This one is blatantly obvious, right? This could be a moot point entirely. There's a growing likelihood that the season could be played in the spring anyways, at which Jamie Newman is unlikely to play. He will probably take his chances at the NFL Draft, which according to the early mock drafts have him favored to go in the first round.
So perhaps none of this even comes to fruition for Georgia. Or perhaps there's a constant question mark over whoever wins the starting job and we play a full season because if there is, you can guarantee that's exactly what will happen.
It's the constant plight of the Georgia fan. Always wanting something better instead of appreciating what you have. That is unless of course whoever wins the job goes on and sets the world on fire Joe Burrow style. Otherwise, Kirby likely just opened himself up for yet another year of "Well, you shoulda played the other guy."
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