Why Jake Fromm is plenty familiar with the situation he finds himself in as a true freshman

On the first Saturday of September, Von Lassiter had a few things to take care of with his Bleckley County High School (Ga.) football team. Lassiter was in his first season as the team’s head coach. A year earlier, he was the head coach at Houston County High School (Ga.). There, he had Jake Fromm as his starting quarterback for three and a half years.

Lassiter and Fromm developed a close relationship. They stayed in touch after Fromm got to Georgia.

Lassiter elected not to make the trip to Athens for the Bulldogs’ 2017 opener against Appalachian State. Fromm told him that he thought he’d play, but that he wouldn’t see the field much with Jacob Eason locked in as the team’s starter.

As it turned out, Fromm played a whole lot more than he expected.

Eason’s knee injury in the first quarter thrusted Fromm into the starting role just minutes into his college career. What happened next, according to Lassiter, wasn’t surprising in the slightest.

Four Georgia victories. Two wins against ranked foes. Seven touchdown passes. One interception. Two sacks taken. No. 7 Associated Press poll ranking. All of that happened with the true freshman under center.

Now, Eason is nearing a possible return. The problem for the former 5-star recruit is that he might not have his job waiting for him when he comes back.

“I knew that he’d take it and run with it,” Lassiter said of Fromm. “There was never any question in my mind that he would not be just phenomenal. He always has been in any aspect of his life in any sport he’s played. He had a 4.0 GPA, never had a ‘B’ … all of those things just gave me plenty of confidence that he could get the job done, whether it’s in high school or in college.”

Besides knowing Fromm’s makeup, Lassiter knew something else about the new Georgia quarterback.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Fromm stole the starting quarterback job from someone in the middle of his freshman season.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

When Fromm began ninth grade, he was about 6-0, 190 pounds. He stood heads and shoulders above his freshman classmates, which was part of the reason Lassiter decided Fromm could handle playing quarterback on varsity. Senior Taylor Boyett was still Houston County’s returning starter heading into the 2013 season.

For the first part of the season, Lassiter limited Fromm’s snaps. Fromm wasn’t the typical second-string quarterback, though. He actually had a regular role in the offense with Boyett still the team’s starter.

Fromm’s workload increased each week until the seventh game against crosstown rival Warner Robins (Ga.). That night, Fromm came in for his usual series. He led a touchdown drive, which prompted the coaching staff to leave him in for longer than usual.

But Fromm did more than just spark the offense. He finished the rest of the game and led Houston County to its second victory in school history against Warner Robins.

“Pretty much after that,” Lassiter said, “he was the starter.”

Lassiter added that Boyett still started on senior night and he was a part of the offense the rest of the season, but the freshman was the primary quarterback. The challenge for Lassiter was telling the veteran that Fromm was the guy. It’s a similar situation to the one Kirby Smart could find himself in with Eason.

Is that an awkward dynamic in a locker room?

“It is, and it very well could be,” Lassiter said. “The difference was what Jake has is an infectious personality. Everybody wants to be around him. Everybody wants to play for him and everybody wants to put themselves in the position he put himself in. He was a leader by example.

“People saw that he was just a little bit different.”

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Lassiter’s favorite memories of Fromm at Houston County aren’t the touchdown passes he threw or the games he won. Lassiter recalled a ritual Fromm developed in high school.

Every day, Fromm left lunch early to get to the weight room. He set up the rack for his workout group and encouraged everyone who walked through the door. He motivated his teammates in whatever way he could.

That wasn’t just something Fromm did as a senior. He did that throughout his time in high school.

“He demanded the best out of the O-line, the receivers, and to be honest with you, he demanded the best out of the coaches,” Lassiter said. “He did that in a way that was a leadership role. He didn’t have to say a word. His encouragement, his up-tempo, positive attitude were something that was just really impressive.”

Those same qualities stood out when Smart first started recruiting Fromm. Smart, who was then the defensive coordinator at Alabama, met Fromm when he was a freshman. Lane Kiffin was the one in charge of the visits to see Fromm, but Smart oversaw his recruitment.

“Everybody in the community talked about what a leader he was,” Smart said. “You can tell when guys come on visits. Are they on their cell phones? Are they paying attention to what’s going on? Are they only worried about themselves? He was always trying to learn the offense and figure out what was going on.

“That’s a key ingredient for a guy to play that position.”

Not surprisingly, Fromm verbally committed to Alabama in the middle of his junior season. He liked what the Tide had to offer. Fromm and Kiffin would talk X’s and O’s. On top of that, he had a solid relationship with Smart.

But when Smart left Alabama and took over the head coaching job at Georgia after the 2015 season, all bets were off. Fromm finally got a Georgia offer a week after Smart took over (Smart called it “a top priority”). Three months later, Fromm flipped his verbal commitment from Alabama to Georgia.

It didn’t matter to him that Eason, who was rated the No. 2 quarterback recruit in the country in the 2016 class, enrolled at Georgia two months earlier.

“He knew that wherever he went, there was gonna be competition. He couldn’t run from that,” Lassiter said. “He never looked at the depth chart. He looked at where he felt most at home, and that was always Georgia. That was where he always wanted to go. They just didn’t have the offer until Kirby came.

“But he didn’t run from competition, and he never will run from it. He doesn’t think like you and I do.”

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

It was almost a year ago that Smart showed up to watch Fromm and Houston County take on Lee County (Ga.). Against 5-star recruit Aubrey Solomon, Fromm had a career-high four interceptions. Fromm struggled down the stretch in his biggest road test of the season. It was a rare rough finish for the U.S. Army All-American.

On Saturday at Tennessee, Smart hopes to watch Fromm have a different finish in the first SEC road game of his career.

Having already won at Notre Dame, Fromm got his first true road test out of the way. That only increased his growing confidence.

Week in, week out Smart praised Fromm’s ability to handle everything they threw at him. He handled his toughest matchup to date against No. 17 Mississippi State. The Bulldogs even drew up a flea flicker for the first play from scrimmage, which Fromm executed to perfection to get them an early 7-0 lead.

Like Lassiter did four years ago, Georgia will likely continue to expand Fromm’s role in the offense. Perhaps Smart already realized the same thing Lassiter did.

Freshman or not, Fromm needs to be running the offense.

“He’s an elite athlete, an elite quarterback, an elite person, an elite competitor, an elite motivator. Everything he does is based on trying to be perfect. You can’t find fault in that,” Lassiter said. “He’s worked extremely hard to learn what they wanted him to learn, and he has proven that he can do that on the field. He’s proven that he can trust his teammates to help him to do that.

“That just came from something God gave him at birth because he’s a different human being.”