Quarterback rotations at Georgia are all too familiar under head coach Mark Richt.

In 2006, he rotated freshman Matthew Stafford and Joe Cox in behind senior quarterback Joe Tereshsinki. Richt also rotated DJ Shockley and David Greene at times during his early years at Georgia.

“I like the philosophy of doing it, period,” Richt said. “I think it’s always good to let your second-teamer play in some snaps that are important in the first half. It just gives them experience that they need in case your starter gets hurt or when your starter moves on because he’s a senior or whatever it may be.”

And again, last week, Richt implemented a quarterback rotation. This time it was redshirt freshman Brice Ramsey who took over a first half series from senior quarterback Hutson Mason. Ramsey went 2-of-4 for 31 yards over the course of two drives all game. Richt was pleased with how it worked out against Vanderbilt.

“It did work out well,” Richt said Sunday. “There’s always a chance we’ll continue to do that. I’m not going to sit here and say for sure what we’re going to do because I don’t know for sure. It’s definitely a possibility to keep doing that type of thing.”

Of course, news of Ramsey working his way into the quarterback rotation wouldn’t be a big deal if Mason had been tearing it up this season. Instead, Mason has been somewhat underwhelming, thanks to a depleted group of wide receivers and the lack of a downfield passing game.

Georgia ranks 12th in the SEC averaging just 170.2 passing yards per game and has only 10 passing plays of 20 yards or more, good for third-lowest in the conference. Ramsey was a four-star high school prospect before enrolling at Georgia. He redshirted during his first year on campus.

While Richt wouldn’t call it a true quarterback rotation, he left the door open for the possibility of Ramsey seeing playing time in upcoming games.

“I wouldn’t call it a rotation,” Richt explained. “Even last week we were committed to letting Brice play a series in the first half. If we moved forward with that type of thinking, it would probably be very similar. It was just more of an opportunity to get Brice’s feet wet [rather than a quarterback rotation].”

But if Georgia proceeds with a quarterback rotation, would that hamper its ability to win the wide-open SEC East?

No.

While often times a quarterback rotation isn’t the mark of a successful team, I believe this year’s Georgia team is in a rare situation – the quarterback isn’t essential to the Bulldogs’ success this season.

Of course quarterbacks always have an impact, whether positive or negative, but there’s no doubt that it’s the running game that dictates the end result for Georgia. The Bulldogs have attempted the second-lowest amount of passes in the SEC (117) so far this season, making it clear that the overwhelming objective for their quarterbacks is to hand the ball off to their stable of ultra-talented running backs.

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Now, does Georgia need their quarterback to make plays in order to win the SEC East? Absolutely. That was evident in the South Carolina game that Georgia lost. Todd Gurley ran for 131 yards and a touchdown, but a questionable play call and an intentional grounding late in the game arguably cost Georgia the win.

It’s inevitable that even big games from Gurley and the other running backs simply won’t be enough to win every game. At some point, like in South Carolina, Mason or even Ramsey will need to step up to the challenge. If the quarterbacks do end up costing Georgia a trip to Atlanta, it won’t be because they may or may not be in a quarterback rotation, but rather simply because they aren’t good enough to lead their team to the conference championship.

However, the main reason why I don’t believe a quarterback rotation wouldn’t negatively affect their chances of winning the SEC East is solely because it’s not Georgia’s biggest issue. In my opinion, if Georgia’s unable to make the SEC Championship, it’ll be thanks to a very questionable secondary.

This is a unit that has lots of inexperience and is thin depth-wise. It almost cost the Bulldogs an upset loss to Tennessee a few weeks ago and they certainly didn’t do anything to prevent South Carolina from passing the football when Georgia sustained its only loss so far this season.

This weekend’s matchup against Missouri could easily represent the game that decides who makes it to Atlanta from the SEC East. The Tigers boast Maty Mauk and a dynamic passing attack that could easily take advantage of the holes in the middle of the secondary if Georgia hasn’t fixed some significant issues.

As for Georgia’s SEC East title prospects, a quarterback rotation probably won’t help things. But with bigger issues on defense, it’ll hardly be the reason why Georgia is robbed of its third SEC Championship appearance since 2002.