Kirby Smart leaves the door open for Justin Fields to start when asked if the job belongs to Jake Fromm
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Note to anyone assuming a single position is safe on Kirby Smart’s roster down in Athens, it’s not.
During his Friday media availability, the Georgia coach was asked if there was any realistic scenario, barring injury to Jake Fromm, that Justin Fields supplants the returning Bulldog quarterback after everything he accomplished last season for Smart’s program and takes the reins of the offense heading into the start of the 2018 season.
Smart did not seem to appreciate the question.
“I look at it, can Tyson Campbell beat out Deandre Baker? Tyson Campbell could beat out Deandre Baker. Can Brenton Cox or Robert Beal have a chance to start over D’Andre Walker? Certainly. I think could Jamaree [Salyer] work at center or Warren Ericson work at center and beat out Lamont [Gaillard]? Certainly.”
While not referencing either quarterback by name there, Smart claims he’ll let any true freshman start if they earn the position during camp.
“I think when you start thinking about that and you start trying to make it a bigger deal than it is, for me, it’s all about who’s going to play with the most consistency, who’s going to do things naturally as a leader and understand and develop and make right decisions — at every position,” Smart continued. “So I think that’s the most important thing for us. Are we headed in team-goal oriented decisions, and are you working as hard as you possibly can to out-compete the other guys?
According to Smart, at no point has Georgia even suggested that Fromm is the starter entering fall camp. The Bulldogs plan to give both quarterbacks and all players an equal amount of reps and give the starting nod to players that earn it in the coming weeks leading up to the opener against Austin Peay on Sept. 1.
“We’ve got a ton of competition in this camp,” Smart said. “You look across the board, when you sit there and say, we don’t really have a depth chart. You guys have a depth chart, but we don’t have a depth chart because every guy is getting the same rep. Our ones, twos, threes, fours are going to get the same number of reps at practice, and we’re going to evaluate them and say who’s doing the best job of competing to the standard we want, and then we’ll make decisions from there who plays.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
