Why there's now even more pressure on Kirby Smart for the Jamie Newman experiment to work
Kirby Smart doesn’t want to be the next Will Muschamp.
Let’s back up. I fear that Georgia fans just got mad online for reading that sentence. After all, Smart has 3 consecutive years of SEC East titles, 3 consecutive years of top-7 finishes and a national championship berth. He and Muschamp are in the same division, but in terms of their respective levels of success as head coaches, they aren’t in the same galaxy.
So let me try that again. Kirby Smart doesn’t want to be the next Will Muschamp as it relates to developing blue-chip quarterbacks.
How does a defensive-minded coach get a reputation for not being able to develop talented quarterbacks, you ask? By repeatedly signing blue-chip recruits at the position only to have them not live up to that billing, or watch them transfer and emerge elsewhere. That can turn into “Negative Recruiting 101” for Dan Mullen’s staff.
You know how that works. A Florida assistant sits down with a big-time quarterback recruit who has Georgia interest and says, “you wanna go to Georgia? Why? Who has that staff developed into a legitimate NFL prospect?”
This past weekend was the first time we got to truly see how the next level valued one of Smart’s quarterbacks. To be frank, it wasn’t pretty. Jacob Eason, though he only spent 2 years in Athens, fell to Round 4. More important was the fall of Jake Fromm, who entered 2019 as a first-round prospect according to several way-too-early mock drafts and plummeted all the way to Round 5.
And don’t you know it, the new 2021 mock drafts are out. Not surprisingly, Jamie Newman and Justin Fields are in there. Smart doesn’t have any control over Fields anymore with him at Ohio State, but Newman? It feels like it would be a major win for Smart if he could nip this trend in the bud.
Georgia’s switch to the Air Raid offense under Todd Monken was well-documented. That followed the news that Georgia signed Newman, who was unquestionably the top grad transfer quarterback on the market. It’d be surprising if Newman wasn’t given some sort of a preview of what Smart had planned for Georgia’s offensive overhaul.
It’s no secret that Smart still has the juice when it comes to landing top quarterback recruits. Besides the aforementioned trio of Eason, Fromm and Fields, Smart signed Newman and flipped 5-star 2021 quarterback Brock Vandagriff in a 10-day stretch.
That suggests nobody is viewing Georgia as a black hole for top-flight quarterbacks. That’s the good news.
The bad news, or rather the “troubling” news, is that if Newman fails to deliver on some high expectations — I wouldn’t bet against him, so this is just a hypothetical — then it’s even more ammo working against Smart. Newman is the first of his kind to become the starting quarterback for Smart. That is, a graduate transfer who already has plenty of good film:
Grade on Deep Throws (20+ yards):
1. Joe Burrow: 98.5
2. Jamie Newman: 96.5
3. Dustin Crum: 96.3— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 11, 2020
Newman is also, however, the guinea pig for the Air Raid offense in Athens. If his abilities aren’t maximized, I can already see what that negative recruiting pitch is:
“You wanna go to Georgia? Why? It doesn’t matter what type of quarterback or what type of system they play. None of those guys are developed in Athens.”
That’s reality in 2020. If you don’t think opposing coaches would use something like that to try and knock Georgia off its recruiting pedestal, you’re naive. And if you don’t think that could potentially sway a 17-year-old kid, well, I’d say that’s naive, too. Has it yet? It doesn’t look like it. If we’re being honest, though, the sample size is still relatively small.
If Newman thrives and takes the SEC by storm, this is all an afterthought. How quickly we’ll forget about Smart’s struggles to manage his absurdly talented quarterback room. We’ll instead shift our attention to whether someone like Dwan Mathis, Carson Beck or Vandagriff can become the next SEC star.
That’s absolutely in play. Newman fit balls into tight windows better than Fromm last year, which is the most promising response to the concerns about how he’ll fare against tougher SEC defenses:
Behind Burrow, Jamie Newman is the second highest-graded QB throwing to a tight window — and third isn’t anywhere near him. pic.twitter.com/xfaAgQaz79
— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 11, 2020
Again, there’s reason to believe Newman can turn Georgia’s passing offense into one of the nation’s best. But there’s also reason to believe that it’s a complete unknown at this point.
Due to COVID-19, Newman didn’t get anything more than 7-on-7 scrimmages with his new receivers. Those practices obviously would’ve mattered greatly for him, as well as for Monken. They should still have time to get on the same page, though it would’ve been nice to at least get a spring game against the nation’s top returning defense.
Spring game or not, there’s no guarantee it would have been a realistic indicator for how the 2020 passing game will look.
If you recall, Muschamp made the transition to Bryan McClendon’s up-tempo spread offense in 2018. What did we hear right before the spring game? That the Gamecocks looked like “old-school Oregon” under Chip Kelly, according to ESPN’s Top Luginbill. It was finally supposed to be the thing that squashed Muschamp’s reputation for not being able to develop quarterbacks.
What did we see from Jake Bentley in 2018? Against ranked opponents, he went 0-5 and he averaged 7.4 yards per attempt. Thanks to the multi-interception games he had to end the 2018 season in uninspiring performances against Akron and Virginia (South Carolina was shut out in the bowl game), only 3 FBS players threw more interceptions than Bentley in a disappointing season in Columbia.
Why do I bring that up?
Because Muschamp changed the offense and that “can’t develop a blue-chip quarterback cloud” still followed him. Jacoby Brissett transferred from Florida and became an NFL prospect. Jeff Driskel also found a path to the NFL after he left Florida, which happened after Muschamp was fired. Will Grier and Treon Harris left Florida after Muschamp was fired, and like Brissett and Driskel, Grier also found a path to the NFL (like how Eason did after leaving Smart and Georgia).
At South Carolina, Muschamp kept big-time Steve Spurrier recruit Brandon McIlwain on board — baseball might have helped with that — but he transferred after Muschamp’s first year. Bentley transferred after his season-ending injury lost him the starting gig in 2019 and Joyner switched to receiver because Muschamp is hoping that another blue-chip quarterback recruit, Ryan Hilinski, can finally break the mold.
That’s the reputation that Smart is trying to avoid. It has undoubtedly cost Muschamp in recruiting battles — though he does still seem to end up with a blue-chip quarterback more times than not — and if the trend develops for Smart, that could eventually happen to him, as well.
Newman’s success means a lot for Georgia in 2020. It could also mean a lot for Smart beyond that. He made the right decision to usher in the new decade with a new offense. With the weapons Georgia has, it should spread defenses out in a way that it didn’t when Eason or Fromm were in Athens.
The best-case scenario for Smart is that by the time the 2021 NFL Draft comes along, Newman will be in the same breath as Fields … and not because someone has a joke with a frustrating punchline.
“Remember when Jamie Newman was close to Justin Fields in the way-too-early mock drafts?”
Muschimp, great recruiter but not so great coach. Agent Smart is the same.
I’d pay money to see you call Muschamp that to his face. But, you’d run like a little girl.
Yea, because Will Muschamp is so immature that he’d get violent so you better not say it? He’s a head coach in the SEC. he’s heard a lot worse.
It’s good to finally see an article that keys on one attribute we have that contributes to the yearly chokes.
It’s only one, but it’s a start.
And the village idiot chimes in with the stupid post of the day.
You may not be Trudawg but you are TruVol or something. And you are the village idiot, I agree.
Please don’t feed the stray animals. That just keeps them coming back.
This statement is demonstrably false.
I mean the part about Smart not being a good coach. Which is frankly a dumb thing to even say.
Agreed as far as Will is concerned…He has failed at two(2) SEC schools: Florida and South Carolina…and if a Head Coach can’t win with all that Florida-Talent ? Winning at S.C. did not have a chance.
Yup. Sakerlina is going to need better to compete with Upstate Kinfolk.
I’ll go out on a limb and predict that there will never be a time that UGA doesn’t have a Top 10 QB recruit on it’s roster.
how about right now! Dude couldn’t even win the starting job at Wake, what a joke!
Uh, he did win the starting job at Wake last season. What planet are you on?
Roll Tide 517 is a typical retarded Bubba fan. Newman was definitively the starter at Wake. What a friggin moron this guy is.
rolltide 517, He started at Wake, and was probably the 2nd best QB in the ACC.Some analysts have him projected as a 1st round draft pick. Posts like that make you look like the “joke”.
Sounds like the negative recruiting pitch used against Gus by virtually everyone else, including Smart.
Good ole Guster.
The biggest difference is perception. Who would you expect to develop a QB better, a defensive guru or an offensive guru? As an offensive guru Lincoln Riley has 3 QBs in the NFL in 3 years while Gus has 0 in over twice the # of years. Please don’t include Newton since the article is comparing head coaches and not coordinators.
To be fair, Stidham is in the NFL and, from what I hear, the projected starter in New England. The starter from before that quit football after getting beat out by Stidham. The year before was obviously a mess and before that you had Nick Marshall, who, while certainly not an NFL QB, was outstanding in Gus’s offense and got AU to a NC appearance. And before any comments about transfer QBs, Lincoln Riley has had all transfers so it’s not relevant. None of this is to say that Gus has done a good job developing QBs, because I think he’s done a middling job at best, but it is intended to address your comment.
Why can’t you include Cam? Riley has multiple guys who were transfers and at least one where he wasn’t the HC. Just because you want to talk trash doesn’t mean you get to pick and choose facts.
Georgia is not all of the sudden running the “air raid”
I do not believe that Kirby Smart would ever allow any Offensive Coordinator to run “The Air Raid Offense”. With the Running-Backs that Georgia always seems to have…that would be a total waste of talent, big-time. I have some ??? involving Jamie Newman…Big Arm=yes, Size=yes
Running Ability=yes…But Experience throwing vs. SEC Defenses=no. We just need to wait-n-see how he meshes with his receivers and reads the defenses. hopefully for Georgia, it all comes together…but not having Spring Practice Hurts Big-Time.
Completely agree!
Since Moken comes from the air raid coaching tree it is assumed that will be the type of offense run. Add to the fact the QB who will be running it appears to fit the scheme it seems plausible.
Georgia signed a bunch of good receivers. I see Air Raid coming.
Kirby Smart is a Defensive-minded coach…from Day One & that’s why I am sure the “Air Raid” has not landed in Athens. A Run-First offense for the Dawgs…with Newman running more than recent Georgia Quarterbacks have, but as a runner…he seems like an old-school Fullback(straight ahead)…not very elusive on the games I’ve viewed online. At mid-season there will be more answers as to how this Experiment has evolved.
Have to admit I’m torn about Newman…on one hand I want to see him succeed in the SEC, and on the other – we don’t need y’alls offense catching up with your defense in terms of production. Should be fun watching Newman, and whatever Kirby/Monken decide to do.
Oh I agree, which is the problem – Georgia’s offense will likely look the way it always does.
@DawgMan, that is true. I’m confident it will be a gradual change testing the waters with Monken on board. I don’t believe we flip a switch and change everything, but with the playmakers coming and and those developing, the new staff should be better equipped to use that talent. Much like Smart has done with the defense.
Negative recruiting is going to happen, especially when Kirby’s taking everybody’s lunch in the recruiting game.
Jake Fromm was developed in Smart’s system and likely as much as was possible. Fromm doesn’t have the tools of a Eason or the other guy who got poached by that other school and he still became one of the top college QB’s.
Everybody knows why Fromm’s numbers dropped last season and it was a lack of receiver talent and depth…
There was a good reason why, as the article states, Newman “who was unquestionably the top grad transfer quarterback on the market” chose UGA.
Kirby Smart doesn’t have a QB development perception problem. That’s why top transfers and 5-star QB prospects are lining up to sign with Georgia.
So your saying that the draft grade on Fromm is accurate. If the receivers make the difference between a great year and an average one than the QB was average to begin with. A great QB is supposed to elevate the receivers.
No that’s not what I’m saying. To your counter point.
Take away every starting receiver off the 2019 LSU team and Burrow doesn’t win the Heisman and LSU doesn’t win the National Championship. The QB can’t pass the ball and catch it too…
Well, actually, Burrow did that – against Georgia. And there’s a youtube clip of him doing it in high school, for a score. But your point is taken.
Lack of receiver talent? I guess two 5 stars, a high four star (#36 in recruiting ranking), and an accomplished transfer isnt enough for Fromm. Stop making excuses for an average QB. Just call Fromm what he is, a game managing QB with average talent and a high IQ.
17 Tide, I guess an Alabama fan might be able to understand my point when compared to Alabama’s Linebacker injuries. There was still plenty of “5 star’ talent on the bench, but somehow when those inexperienced replacements came off the bench there was an inexpiable drop off in production.
At least that was the excuses coming out of many Bama fans comments…
I don’t know how it could be said they failed to develop Fromm. He could clearly read defenses and makes good decisions. You can’t teach a rocket launcher arm. You either have one or you don’t.
Oh poo, don’t make logical points like that on SDS. Too boring.
Basing the conclusion of failure to develop on the disparity between way-too-early mock drafts and the actual draft is incredibly dumb.
I would imagine development would be based on HS recruiting ranking to NFL draft position.
I’m still stuck on how the football universe has defaulted the QB position to Newman.
I’m hoping for a REAL competition during camp.
I’m a big Dwan Mathis fan. He has a similar skill set just not the starting experience and Carson Beck is no slouch.
There will be a competition but Newman will be the starter. Watch his games. He’s legit. I would love to see Mathis play and realistically he’s probably the only one that has a shot if he’s really healthy but my money is still on Newman.
I’m relatively sure Newman will start, but I really think Mathis could be something. He could play backup for Newman this year and get put in the blowouts just to see how he does.
If Newman doesn’t start, they’ll never get another QB transfer. Newman has to start.
I don’t think he “has to” start. If he’s outshined by someone else he won’t. I just don’t think Beck or Mathis will beat him out.
I really don’t like his extended delayed reads on the “hold the ball w/ the RB” option. He will not have that luxury in the SEC. His decision making will need to be much quicker.
I hope Monken has a plan.
Th plan might be simple…”Run Jamie Run !” as those SEC Defenses close-in.
Mathis and Beck might as well transfer. With Vandegriff coming in next year, he’ll likely win that job.
Agreed.
I made a similar comment several months ago. Too bad the comment history doesn’t go back that far.
Why does everyone continue to read so much into where Fromm went in the draft? How many articles are you going to churn out over this?
It’s possible, Russel left NC State for Wisconsin… that turned out pretty well for him.
Coaching matters but I feel a lot of it is up to the individual and what their true ceilings are. The star rating system is based on HS performance and how they are “projected” to perform at the college level. But there are flaws, as many 3* prospects become much better than that and many 5* prospects fail to meet the projection. I guess what I’m saying is it goes both ways, a prospects star rating isn’t a guarantee and coaching is not by any means the only factor in an “elite” recruit living up to such.
We’ll see what happens. I think it’s unfair to put the expectations too high, considering Smart has to implement a brand new offense, brand new quarterback, and brand new offensive line, all without spring practice or any sort of summer work. Those factors make it pretty stupid to say that this is a make or break experiment for Smart.
Kirby I have to agree with you on that. This will be a caveat year for most teams. Im not as sure as many that newman will be a top performer in the sec/country and he will certainly be handicapped by all the covid related delays and things, but I also question the difference in the defenses he will face now vs in the Always Cushy Conference. maybe he lights it up but there are no guarantees. The rest of the east is sure hoping he fails to live up to the hype.
Here’s the problem with Georgia. If they have a different coach, other than Kirby, they potentially win against big programs like Bama, LSU, etc. But, Kirby’s likely the much better recruiter.
Lol he’s been a HC for 4 seasons and nobody has had success vs Saban or 2019 LSU. Appreciate the concern but we’ll be fine.
Gus is 3-4 against Saban. That’s pretty good considering the talent discrepancies and Saban being the “GOAT”
He’s also 1-4 vs Smart.
Thanks for the irrelevant stat.
If Gus wasn’t playing in the black magic confines of Jordyn-Hare, he wouldn’t be anywhere close to 3-4.
But he does and he is..
Wde0012: So Malzahn’s record against Saban is relevant but his record against Smart isn’t? Is his record against Orgeron relevant? Here is the relevant facts, he has a losing record against all 3.
Yes it’s relevant. Do y’all not know how a conversation works? Geez.
He said “nobody has had success vs Saban”.
That’s what I was responding too. And y’all want to say Kirby and Coach O and total all three. That’s fine and dandy but I’m responding to his post about not having success be Saban.
He has a losing record against Saban… That’s success?
Who has a winning record against Saban? Like I said earlier.. pretty good considering the talent discrepancies and Saban being the “GOAT”. I would call that success.
Well God knows it’s the one thread that’s kept him from getting fired multiple times.
Well we have a different opinion of success.
KS – never has been close to getting fired. A lot of smoke from media and sports bloggers but nothing from admin or boosters.
BT – that’s fine. There are lots of different opinions of success.
I would imagine Auburn would want more out of their HC than losing 4 games a year…. They’ve only had one season in which he did better and that was year 1….
Oh no doubt but again, that’s irrelevant.
I’m not talking about Gus Vs Saban as I already pointed out my opinion isn’t the same as yours…
I’m talking about he has never been close to being fired. I would think Auburn would consider it since at least 4 losses seems to be a given every year. So it’s definitely relevant..
He hasn’t been close to being fired though. I stated that already..
Nothing on record from admin or boosters**
Fixed it for you. I have heard admin and boosters from their mouth discussing firing Gus.
Oh really? You’re a board member? You sit on the meetings? What else do they say?
I would take 3 wins vs bama in 7 years right now.
As a PhD student at Auburn who has a strong relationship with several of Auburn’s admin, I’ve been afforded to sit and have drinks with several of the boosters and admin. My favorite so far has been talking it up with Coach Pearl. He’s actually funny. I’ve also tutored athletes from several of the sports and have worked side by side with the equestrian team trying to develop a training program for their riders so they could practice without risking injury to themselves or the horses.
Just because YOU don’t know, don’t try to project WHAT YOU think is going on.
Former ULM coach Charlie Weatherbie has a winning record against Saban
1. I know you’re lying
2. I do know what’s going on. I’ve stated on this site and also to BT that I have really good ties to the program. Gus has never been close to being fired.
Plus right or wrong wde is going to argue it anyway… LMAO
Not always.. just when I know I am right.
Kirby has played Alabama down to the wire in both meetings.
UGA is nipping at Alabama’s heels.
He will get us over the hump.
A different coach like Mark Richt? I don’t think finding better coaches are easier than the alternative. Firing Richt and having Kirby Smart ready and available and willing and alumni and all that is the exception. “A different coach this or a different coach that” is easy to say, not easy to accomplish expecially when you’re saying a different coach than Kirby Smart.
Connor knows nothing about Sec history. He should go back to Big 10 where he belongs. Georgia has had good Qbs long before Kirby and will have more no matter what happens this year. Kirby and UGA don’t need Newman to be Heisman like he suggests. UGA has always been a run and defense team and has sent many QBs to NFL with varying levels of success. Tarkenton, Stafford, Zeire, Carter, Greene, Shockley, Murray, and now Fromm all got paid at professional level. I don’t see the pipeline drying up anytime soon.
Aaron Murray has 0 stats in the NFL. Great college QB though..
Tarkenton? Seriously?
Tarkenton was legit & inducted into NFL Hall of Fame 1987. It is astounding his style of play was allowed in the late 50’s at UGA & later as a pro.I still enjoy watching video of Fran “scrambling.”
He played in three Super Bowls.
It kills me how these storylines develop based upon the barest of superficial analysis.
Whatever you want to say about Mark Richt, he was a pro style quarterback guru. He played the position at Miami and had great success as a QB coach and OC at FSU before Georgia hired him. Jacob Eason was a Richt/Bobo recruit.
I clearly remember Eason’s true freshman spring game. The Jamie Newman hype doesn’t hold a candle to the Eason hype during and after that game. Eason did make some impressive throws, but spring games are notoriously tilted toward the offense. Eason didn’t fare as well against elite regular season defenses who weren’t playing plain vanilla coverages.
Jake Fromm was the ideal quarterback for pre-2020 Kirby Smart: an A.J. McCarron / Greg McElroy game manager with a high football IQ who made very few mistakes. In other words… Fromm was a classic Nick Saban quarterback. His biggest problems in 2019 were predictable play calling and talented but very inexperienced receivers.
Recruiting isn’t just salesmanship; circumstances and situations matter. Vandagriff lives about 20 minutes from UGA’s campus. Beck — who is from Jacksonville — is a pure pro style quarterback so he’s going to have a better shot at Georgia than he would competing with Mullen’s preference for dual threat guys at Florida. Fields would have been a perfect fit for Mullen’s offense, but Mullen had just arrived and was taking over a 4-7 team. Nobody — nobody — expected him to turn the Florida program around as fast as he did. And Fields is from the NW Atlanta metro area. At the end of the day, he just always wanted to be a Bulldog.
Now, about Muschamp. Ah, Muschamp. Muschamp made the Fields/Fromm mistake with Brissett/Driskel. Both guys ended up making it to the NFL, but Brissett was the better quarterback; Muschamp just never gave him a chance. Most head coaches are risk averse, which is to say they get really uncomfortable with the risks of alternating quarterbacks, or throwing more talented but less experienced QB2s into the fire. I’m not really a Dabo Swinney fan, but you have to give him credit for playing a true freshman Trevor Lawrence. At the time, it probably didn’t feel like the no-brainer that it looks like in hindsight.
Ryan Hilinski is going to be a good quarterback. He was thrown into the fire as a freshman before he was ready and still performed pretty well. He also showed some toughness. In my opinion, hiring Mike Bobo was by far the best offensive coaching hire Muschamp has ever made. But whether Hilinski excels at South Carolina probably has more to do with his supporting cast and an increasingly tough SEC East than it does with Bobo, or Muschamp’s “reputation for quarterback development.”
Jamie Newman will be at a severe disadvantage going into the 2020 season. New team, new OC, new scheme, no spring practice and at least four good to elite defenses on the schedule, with a really good one in week 3. As for Newman “throwing into tight windows,” I simply do not know what the PFF analysts (many of whom are British mathematicians who’ve probably never touched an American football, let alone played) are talking about. When I watch his film, I see little DBs from schools like Elon, Utah State and Boston College repeatedly falling down trying to cover big Wake Forest receivers. The Clemson film is a lot different; I see the Clemson secondary anticipating his throws. I will not be the least bit surprised to see a lot more running game out of Georgia next season than anyone currently expects. (As for his running, Newman is not an elusive dual threat guy; he’s more of a bull.)
In summary, quarterbacks will choose Kirby Smart’s Georgia because they have ties to the state and have been fans for most of their young lives. Or because Georgia is an elite SEC program where they will have an opportunity to win a lot more games than they lose.
Quarterback development isn’t likely to be a positive or a negative, except to the extent that moving forward, you aren’t likely to see a Matthew Stafford come to Athens from Dallas, or a Jacob Eason from Washington state. They came because of Richt (Eason probably stayed because it was so late in his recruitment when Kirby arrived).
These are pretty solid points, but I still think a QB recruit can choose Georgia because he believes it gives him a good platform to the NFL. All it takes is for Monken to produce a competent offense for a few seasons. I will definitely concede that Kirby and UGA’s recruiting would have a far stronger cross-country pull for positions like DB, LB, and RB, rather than QBs or WRs, because in addition to the SEC/good program factor, you have proven development history at those positions.
@Nashville Gator, I agree with so much of your assessments that I refuse to take issue with your points on Newman. Well stated!
Nashville…great stuff ! You should be one of the TV Analysts…you call it concisely and accurately. Might be a future for you there. You can definitely tell that you were a DB/Safety.
Spot on, Nash
Well goodness sake Connor O’Gara…I mean Nash…why didn’t you just write that in your article…lol
Great War n peace thesis btw…excellent points
Nashville is a much better writer than the SDS guys…His eyes view the game and players from a player’s perspective. There’s gotta be some TV Football Analyst Jobs Available out there. Fox maybe, as Urban is horrible at that…not much of a people-person ever. Sure can Coach a College Football Team but personal skills=none.
Nash doesn’t believe stars matter and bye weeks have no impact on wins and losses, so I don’t think he’s qualified lol
Stars are suggestive, not predictive.
The evidence on bye weeks is mixed.
Stars are predictive? Got to take issue with that. Look no further than the recent NFL Draft. 20 of the 1st round draft were 5 or 4 stars. 66%. Yet they total only 10% in numbers. Where did they go? Bama, LSU, and OSU.
not*
I was really referring to 5-stars with the “suggestive” remark. Their numbers per year are so small that some significant portion are bound not to work out because they are either not evaluated correctly, or they have great physical metrics but they didn’t play good competition, or they have attitude issues that only surface in college. Or all of the above.
As an example, none of Florida’s top three all-time highest rated 5-star recruits played to their potential. Ronald Powell was the number one player in the nation but had a spotty career. Brock Berlin was the premier quarterback recruit in his national recruiting class. He never won the starting job and transferred to Miami, where he had an inconsistent career. Martez Ivey (#3 all-time) had a decent college career but was not drafted and is currently playing in the XFL. While all three have/had pro football careers, they can be fairly described as journeymen at best.
4-stars have elite talent and the arbitrary cutoff (e.g., no more than 32 5-stars per year) suggests that more than a few 4-stars are probably just as good as 5-stars.
Wow, this is coming from a Gator! I can not believe that I actually admit that NashvilleGator is completely correct on all points. I am just dumbfounded.
Of course this could also be stretched broader than just the QB position. Considering the talent that GA brings in, through three rounds they only had 3 players drafted. Compare that to LSU-10 players, Bama-9 players. Georgia’s 3 players were less than FLA with 4, tied with Mississippi St and only 2 more than Vanderbilt, Mizzou, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas who each had 1 player selected through 3 rounds.
Georgia’s recruiting rankings year after year are much closer to the Bama’s and LSU’s in the conference, yet their number of early draft picks were closer to Miss St, Tenn, Mizzou and Arkansas etc. It’s still hard to put that all on the feet of coaching and developing as 2 of those 3 were 1st RD, one in the 2nd then it dried up until later rounds, but it’s interesting food for thought none the less.
Yeah, but in 2018 UGA had the largest percentage of underclassmen in the SEC, and every draft eligible defensive player opted to return for the 2020 season, so a lot of the times it’s just fluctuation based on the age of your roster.
Well stated.
I agree, that’s a valid counter argument too. Basing a coaches ability to develop players due to their draft position is a double edged sword. Just the other day there was an article on SEC busts. So you have guys like Couch and Russell who were drafted #1, so does that really mean they were they developed at a high level just because they were drafted so high, even though they both crashed and burned and were clearly not NFL ready? There’s just too many ways or examples to twist what you want draft position to really mean and then have it crumble with another name or two.
Most draft eligible players with a realistic shot of declaring in their junior year receive a draft grade from the NFL (there used to be a limit of five per school). Juniors who can go in a high round rarely stay in school these days because the money’s too great, a pro football career is short and the risk of injury is relatively high.
Bottom line: If a junior doesn’t declare, it’s usually because he’s been advised not to.
There are interesting cases. Why didn’t Alex Leatherwood declare? Well, 22% of the first round picks this year (7 of 32) were offensive tackles. There’s a multi-million dollar difference between top 10 money and positions 11-32 money, and another huge difference between first round and second round money.
With so many quality offensive tackles in this draft, it could conceivably be worth an extra $20-30 million for Leatherwood to wait until next year’s draft if it means he’s more of a lock to be a top 5, or top 10, pick.
Risk…reward. I can’t believe Alex would not have been top 10 this year…dude’s a beast. I believe he and few other TrunksnorterU players have some unfinished business….
He might well have. But if there are three OTs ahead of him this year and there might not be any ahead of him next year, the net difference in his compensation could be $20 million or more.
Hey Conner! Nash just auditioned for your job. And did a fine job of UGA bashing. Now can you go back to Big 10?
I thought Nash was Connor, he isn’t?
I can assure you he isn’t.
Nash is actually an SEC football computer algorithm in the math department at Vanderbilt, that only select coaches and media personalities are allowed to have access to – and they have to pay for it. Sometimes, when bad data is fed into the program, NeGaN is the result.
Now that’s funny.
Orgeron has access. O’Gara doesn’t.
What QB’s has Dan Mullen developed who has made a name in the NFL other than Dak Prescott and Alex Smith. Harbaugh thought so much of Smith that he benched him for Kaepernick and the Cowboys think so much of Prescott that they could not wait to sign him to a long term big money extension right? I’d take Matthew Stafford over both of them. Please don’t talk about Mullen as a QB guru. If you think about it, most big time college QB’s with NFL careers don’t come from the SEC. They come from other conferences and I think that’s because of the run first style of the SEC. Who has Saban developed other than Tua? If he had developed Hurts properly, then Tua would be starting this year for the 1st time as a junior. Who did Spurrier develop that has had an impactful NFL career? Rex Grossman? For decades the majority of impactful NFL QB’s come from places other than the SEC. Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin will change that, I think.
@JTF, I’ll go out on that limb also and say there will never be a time UGA does not have a top 10 QB on its roster. It’s hard to negative recruit against a winning program.
Well development is also taking QBs that may not be as talented and highly rated coming out of high school into successful college QBs and potential NFL QBs. Alex Smith was a 2-star and became the #1 draft pick. Dak was a 3-star and is now a two-time NFL pro-bowl. Trask was a 2-star and will potentially be drafted. It’s hard to argue Mullen hasn’t developed QBs. I will say the NFL has also underrated running QBs until more recently. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mullen-type QBs have better success in the NFL moving forward, with the Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson types.
Mullen can’t get a ton of credit for Trask. He would still have him on the bench if Franks hadn’t gotten hurt. And Franks was not exactly progressing as a QB, if anything he was regressing. Trask also wasn’t getting a lot of that development as a 2nd string QB. A bigger question is how did Mullen not see Trasks promise earlier. His talent was obvious the minute he stepped on the field.
Franks regressed? In reality Franks had a dramatic improvement from 2017 with mac to 2018 under Mullen. The numbers speak for themselves you can look it up.
Georgia is not switching to the Air Raid. Negative recruiting always occurs and will continue to even if a program is wildly successful. How Newman fairs will have little bearing on future QB recruiting.
And here’s why this is complete and total bullcrap, Connor:
How many first round QBs did Nick Saban ever produce?
How many Nick Saban QBs have had any kind of success in the NFL commiserate with their college success?
And how many national titles does Nick Saban have?
Boom. Roasted.
The premise of the whole article is flawed. I don’t think Smart mismanaged the QBs room. He picked the QBs that best helped him win. What Fields did on a different team, running a different offense and against defenses has nothing to do with how he was playing at UGA. Until this year Saban never had a 1st round QB but he has never be accused of not being able to develop them. A head coach should be evaluated on recruiting, winning and then # of players who get drafted. Kirby seems to being more than okay on all 3 points.
Is this about WM, not a very good analogy – more like coach O. career ?
Will is Not Coach “O” and his resume will not ever be even remotely similar to the Cajun-Coach named “O”. You SC fans need to accept reality. I know you want Wins for the Cocks, but with Will=? Just borrow the $$$ and get him gone and hire yourself a Young, Talented Offensive-Minded Coach & those wins should come.
If they aren’t in the same galaxy how come Kirby lost to Muschamp at home last season?
Same reason Musch lost to App…sh tt happens…
Any Given Saturday…anything in Football can happen.
Pressure? Come on everybody knows there’s no pressure on Kirby The Magician. Newman after all is a lock for the Heisman and will be mentored by Brady 2.0 aka Monken so everything is fine and dandy. The Air Raid O has already been installed and is better than what LSU did last year. Kirby Magic don’t need no stinkin’ practice and no stinkin’ spring game because it’s magic. Just like a fella who has never been a position coach or a recruiter in all his professional life is magically transformed into an excellent special teams coach and an ace recruiter by virtue of being hired by Kirby The Magician, Monken is now better than Brady was in 2019 and Newman already has a lock on the Heisman and will surely be the #1 pick in next NFK draft. The Air Raid is a sight to behold.
In fact if we never get to play this college football season it has already been decided that UGA will be crowned national champs without any opposition since they have the best coaches and the best players in the history of college football.
There ain’t no pressure on Kirby
NFL draft
Co you sound exactly like Corch and King…I guess that’s the new way of the world…use ignorance against ignorance…
Not so much King but similar to Corch in the over the top Georgia cheerleading with the exception that no one was insulted or attacked. Too bad you can’t understand satire
Put up a UGA logo and change your screen name to corch and that would have been spot on for how he always posts and feels about UGA…
Lol Nut Sack is nervous
Oh hello, loser, forgot you were still drooling over your keyboard desperately waiting for another UGA article to pop up to post your crap.
QB; always the weakest position on the team.
Question? How many times was Fromm hurt during tenure at UGA? That’s what I thought…crickets.
One fact that will not ever change…In the SEC to Consistently win…You’ve Got to Have a Good Quarterback who makes wise decisions with the Football…whatever his Other Tangible Qualities Are.