Jacob Eason (AJC/Michael Carvell)
LAKE STEVENS, WASH. — There are plenty of good football players with good nicknames, and UGA's quarterback of the future is called "Skinny."
Skinny is Jacob Eason, who is the nation's No. 1-rated high school quarterback and committed to UGA.
"He has been called Skinny for so long that there are some people in this town that don't even know his real name is Jacob," his father, Tony Eason, told the AJC with a laugh.
Eason and his Lake Stevens teammates are going through spring football practices this week, and one of his coaches told me that he tried as hard as he could to call Jacob by his first name. “It last about two weeks, and then I gave up,” the coach said.
Eason likes the nickname so much that he uses at his Twitter handle, which is @skinnyQB10.
Now with every good nickname, there’s a good story. And I have to admit: I thought Eason earned the moniker because of his tall and lanky frame – which, oh by the way, is filling out. If you look at pictures from his freshman year, he was thin as a rail at 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds.
But that’s not why Jacob Eason is called Skinny. We’ll let the father and son tell the story:
Said Tony, “When he was two or three years old, he had long and curly hair. I always wanted to cut but my wife was like ‘No, no. Look at those curls on my baby. We’ve got to let it all grow out.’ So finally she was away for a little bit, and I was like ‘It’s time for haircut.’ Let me say this: I’m no barber …”
Said Jacob, “My dad wanted to give me a flat top but he couldn’t get it right. He cut it at the wrong angle. He kept going (shorter) to get it perfect, and all of sudden he got all the way down to the skin. He rubbed my head, he felt it, and he started calling me Skinny after that. It stuck. My teachers call me that, and my coaches call me that, as do all of my best friends. The only person who won’t call me Skinny is my mom. She calls me Jacob. That’s all she calls me. She doesn’t like Skinny at all.”
Added Tony: "His mom isn't fond of Skinny because it brings back bad memories for her. He may be outgrowing it. I don't know if it needs to follow him to Georgia, but we'll see."
If they call Jacob Eason by the name of Skinny in the SEC, it won't be because he's skinny. Eason has added some muscle to his tall and lanky frame over the last two years. He was at 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds season as a junior, and he's pushing 6-6 and 220 pounds this summer.
Some of Eason’s growth spurt has to do with natural growth, while he’s also boosted his frame by working out with a trainer for three days a week.
“I’d like to get up to 235,” Jacob said. “I don’t want to get too big up in the shoulders. I still want to be able to throw. I want to get up to a good weight to be able to take a hit in the SEC.”
And what does UGA want Eason to weigh when he reports next January? “I haven’t really talked to them about it,” he said. “They obviously don’t want me to get too big. But they want me to be able to sustain a blow. I feel comfortable with a lot more weight on, too. I want to be able to take on hits. There are much bigger guys in the SEC than there are in high school. I want to ready for it.”
In the below video, Jacob Eason talks about his summer plans. Will he attend Dawg Night prospect again? Will that be the only camp he attends? Will he accept Michigan's invite to camp? And who else is Eason trying to recruit to go with him to UGA?
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