By: Drayton Hogarth

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Georgia Bulldogs will not be kicking off their spring practice for another couple of weeks, but that does not stop the news from coming out of Athens.

Georgia lost not one, but two players that decided to transfer from the program as graduates. One was defensive back, Reggie Wilkerson, and the other was Camden County’s own, quarterback Brice Ramsey.

Unfortunately, Wilkerson was never able to overcome a devastating knee injury, to reach his full potential as the elite athlete that he showed as a high school player.

The departure of Brice Ramsey will be more difficult as it hurts the Bulldogs at two positions, as Ramsey was an experienced backup quarterback, and finished the season as the starting punter.

Georgia has a graduate transfer kicker and punter from Wofford, in David Marvin, that should be able to step into both roles nicely for the Dawgs. However, now that Ramsey is gone, let’s take a look at the all important position of quarterback that he will be leaving behind.

Look, no one thought that Brice Ramsey was going to come back for his last season of eligibility and unseat sophomore starter, Jacob Eason.

However, losing Ramsey means that Georgia’s quarterback position will be extremely thin heading into the 2017 season. The scary part for Georgia is Eason, and true freshman Jake Fromm are the only two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster.

The rest will be walk-ons, and that means the Bulldogs will have to hope that an improved offensive line and good luck are on their side.

While young Eason demonstrated solid poise and flashes of brilliance; all while protecting the ball, traits normally reserved for much more experienced quarterbacks, the backup quarterback is always one play away from entering the game.

Coach Smart’s preference would likely be to redshirt Fromm if at all possible, which is where Ramsey would have been the bridge for Fromm to cross from his redshirt freshman to sophomore seasons.

With Eason, the Washington native has all of the intangibles that a team could want in a quarterback. He’s a proverbial prototype for the position. Eason will continue to improve over the offseason, and one reason to feel that Eason will make strides will be because of his now backup in Jake Fromm.

Fromm is an early enrollee and from the moment he got to campus, he displayed a strong sense of leadership by communicating with all of his receivers, setting up times to go work on routes and pass catching and if they couldn’t make it Fromm wanted to know why.

Eason has never been as vocal it seems, and it is likely the biggest quality that he will need to improve upon. However, having Fromm show that type of fire should inspire Eason to take more of a vocal role on the team.

Fromm’s leadership qualities have not gone unnoticed by Head Coach Kirby Smart, “He’s got a little leadership to him that he’s not afraid to jump out there and tell guys where to line up, what to do, and get after it with a little fire. I think that dynamic, Jacob sees that, and Jacob’s sitting there watching this young kid that comes in with a little more fire and brimstone that even he had. I think Jake’s in a good place and I think he’s ready to go compete.”

I have heard many in our part of the state say they feel that the true freshman from Houston County will come in and take over the Bulldog football team. I believe Jake Fromm has an extremely bright future, and will indeed be the starting quarterback for the Dawgs, but not for another two seasons.

Folks tend to underappreciate the tremendous talent that Jacob Eason brings to the program. Fromm will play a pivotal job this offseason, and that will be to push Eason to strive to be greater, to work harder, and be better than he ever has before.

When that happens then Jake Fromm will have done his job to make Georgia better at quarterback both now and in the future.