For a brief moment, the door opened on the Fourth of July.

That was the knee-jerk reaction after reports of Jake Fromm’s broken hand surfaced.

Five-star freshman Justin Fields was going to get an opportunity to work with Georgia’s first-string offense and possibly win the starting job. All of the offseason questions about how Kirby Smart was going to involve Fields were going to take a turn. The new questions would be about whether Fromm would be healthy for the start of the season, and if so, would Fields have already run away with the starting job.

That’s at least how I imagined the dialogue going at Fourth of July cookouts/barbecues across Georgia when these reports surfaced.

And then when we later found out that it was Fromm’s non-throwing hand and that he wouldn’t even miss 7-on-7s, everyone went back to consuming far too much food, sun and fireworks because America.

But on America’s birthday, we got an important reminder about this whole situation. It’s not going to take very much to crack the door open. It doesn’t have to be some season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear or an indefinite suspension.

During the season, perhaps an injury like the one Fromm suffered would have really opened the door (he also probably wouldn’t have been out on the lake, either).

Right now, Fromm is in a different room than Fields because that’s what happens when you lead a program to its first national championship berth in nearly 4 decades. I’m of the belief that there’s nothing that even a 5-star freshman like Fields can do in preseason camp or in garbage time to overcome that type of accomplishment.

That is, unless Fromm opens the door.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

He of all people knows that better than anyone. Entering his sophomore season, Fromm already saw two perfect examples of what can happen when the door opens.

Fromm isn’t in the position that he’s in right now without Jacob Eason opening the door. Obviously suffering a knee injury wasn’t Eason’s fault, but the byproduct was still the same. The door was opened in the first quarter of Georgia’s 2017 season opener. Fromm walked in, guided Eason out, closed and locked the door, threw away the key and Eason went to go find a new room to hang out in.

Four months later, Fromm witnessed the ultimate case of what happens when poor performance opens the door. Jalen Hurts’ first-half dud in the College Football Playoff National Championship overshadowed his 25-2 record as a starter and his 2016 SEC Offensive Player of the Year award. The door opened nonetheless. Fromm watched his friend, Tua Tagovailoa, walk into the room and instantly become the belle of the ball.

Matt Hayes’ Bleacher Report story about Hurts’ uncertain future at Alabama became the talk of the college football offseason. The quote that stood out to me came courtesy of Hurts’ dad, Averion Hurts.

“I told Jalen, you f–ked up, you opened the door and put yourself in this situation. Now it’s up to you to dig yourself out.”

That’s a fascinating quote to hear from a parent. Why? Most parents would vent about why their accomplished kid deserves to be the starter. Averion Hurts, however, vented about what can happen when the door opens.

I highly doubt that message is lost on Fromm. After spending all offseason hearing about how talented Fields was and then working beside him on a daily basis, nobody needs to remind Fromm what he needs to do to keep this job.

And don’t treat this as some long-winded way of saying Fromm should stay away from water sports altogether, though given his broken hand and his fish hook incident, exercising extreme caution can’t hurt at this point. Fromm can still roll his ankle stepping off the bus and open the door that way, too.

Fromm’s latest scare served as the perfect reminder of how quickly this can all change. It’s a unique, though not unprecedented situation that he finds himself in.

There will be moments that make us wonder if the door really is opening for Fields. Maybe it comes when Fromm smashes his finger on a lineman’s helmet during the opener. Perhaps South Carolina jumps out to a 17-0 lead after Fromm has a first half like Hurts had in the title game. Who knows? There could be another freak injury in store. After all, Fromm is an avid hunter.

Alright, alright, alright. I’ll stop speculating all the ways that Fromm can lose his starting job. Or rather, open the door for that to happen.

If all goes according to plan, this conversation won’t be revisited in 2018. Fromm’s injuries in the outdoors will be nothing more than a summer storyline and he’ll pick up where he left off as one of college football’s rising young quarterbacks. Georgia will have teams blown out by the middle of third quarter, which will prompt Smart to give Fields some reps. Instead of Fromm’s job security, we’ll write midweek stories about his Heisman Trophy candidacy. That seems like a great plan for Fromm and a great plan for Georgia.

But as we were reminded for a brief period Wednesday, it won’t take much to change that plan. Maybe Fromm’s 2018 mission got a little clearer with his injury scare.

He has to do everything in his power to make sure that door doesn’t even crack open.