Georgia is getting set to begin a new era under head coach Kirby Smart, and that new era may bring a drastically different philosophy.
As Marc Weiszer of onlineathens.com wrote today, this past Saturday’s offer to dual-threat QB Emory Jones could reveal Smart’s willingness to recruit outside the traditional pro-style quarterbacks the program got accustomed to over the last several years.
Jones, a four-star QB and the No. 4 dual-threat QB in the Class of 2018 according to 247Sports, unofficially visited Georgia this past Saturday before becoming the second QB in the cycle to be offered by the Dawgs. The other is No. 1 overall prospect and pro-style QB Trevor Lawrence.
As Weiszer pointed out, Smart made it clear in January that he isn’t going to pigeon-hole the program into one specific type of signal-caller after the school recruited 11 pro-style QBs and just two dual-threat QBs since 2002.
Prior to that, D.J. Shockley was recruited by former head coach Mark Richt in his first recruiting class. Interestingly enough, he led Georgia to its last SEC title in 2005.
If anything, Smart’s time at Alabama working under coach Nick Saban could’ve helped Smart keep an open mind to dual-threat QBs. Saban himself has come to embrace it after being hurt himself by mobile QBs a few times.
You can view Weiszer’s article in its entirety here.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
