By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Refer to it however you would like: Armchair Expert, Monday Morning Quarterback.

As fans, it’s easy to look back and judge a coach or an organization on personnel moves or play calls and claim we would’ve done something different.

For one, we’re not held accountable when it goes awry, so we can choose to gamble.

Also, most of these coaches are being paid millions of dollars to correctly make those difficult decisions, so I get the expectations. It doesn’t make those choices any easier though.

When you look back at this past year, I imagine most Georgia fans feel as though their season would’ve been more successful had Justin Fields been under center, rather than Jake Fromm, with most directing their displeasure towards Kirby Smart.

In almost all the major categories we use to gauge the success of a quarterback, Fields out performed Fromm, so it would make sense for fans to feel that way. Like with most things though, it’s not quite that simple.

For one, you have to consider the conference Fields plays in. Most SEC fans, and media for that matter, like to scream from the mountain tops about how difficult the SEC is, and how much more dominant it is over every other conference.

For the record, I’m not disagreeing, but if the criteria we’re going by is based on SEC superiority, then it makes sense that Fields numbers wouldn’t be the same had he stayed in Athens.

If you were to take away one touchdown and add 0.5 interceptions per conference game, something that is realistic if Fields were to have played in the SEC, his numbers aren’t far off from Fromm. And that’s with Fromm having under-achieved this year, compared to last season.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Fromm actually had the better season, just trying to put things into perspective.

The other thing to keep in mind is where the program was at this point last season. Even though Georgia lost to Texas, Fromm had led the Bulldogs to their second consecutive SEC Championship game appearance, while improving on his stats from the year before.

Fields had shown flashes of what he could do in limited playing time, but not enough to make it obvious he should be the starter.

One of the things I hear and read from Georgia fans is how they respect the fact Smart doesn’t promise playing time to any players, they have to earn it.

I don’t claim to know the inner workings of the Georgia program, but I imagine Fields was looking for a guarantee that Smart wouldn’t give.

If he had, and Fields produced similar numbers to what Fromm did during his sophomore campaign, how would the fan base feel?

Would they be ok with that kind of production or would they clamoring for Fromm, upset that Smart went with potential over the proven commodity? Based off his two seasons in Athens, and the expectation Fromm had going into his Junior year, he was the logical choice; at least enough to give him a shot to keep his job.

I know this is all hypothetical, but that’s kind of the point. As fans, we have the luxury of playing in this “what if” world, where we don’t have to commit to any particular decision because we’re not accountable for it.

Coaches, no matter how much money they’re paid, don’t have that option.