John Lastinger has just about seen it all.
“It’s snowing in Valdosta, the Bulldogs are in the national championship,” he said two days after Georgia’s Rose Bowl win. “What’s next?”
Lastinger was the last Bulldogs quarterback to play for a title, way back on Jan. 1, 1983. Georgia lost to Penn State 27-23 in the Sugar Bowl.
It’s a memory that stays with Lastinger today. He remembers missing specific throws in the first quarter. He remembers being forced to go out and win the game because Penn State wasn’t going to let Herschel Walker beat them.
That same challenge will be bestowed upon freshman quarterback Jake Fromm on Monday against Alabama. Georgia is set to play in its first championship since that day, and similarly, got there riding its rushing attack.
Lastinger hadn’t seen Fromm until spring practice despite the Warner Robins product facing Lastinger’s Valdosta Wildcats in the 2016 high school playoffs. The Wildcats won 28-24 as Fromm went 18 of 28 for 174 yards.
“Valdosta handled him pretty well,” Lastinger said. “When the Valdosta contingent got back, it was sort of ho-hum, he’s not all that.”
Even when Lastinger first saw Fromm, he wasn’t as polished as then-starting quarterback Jacob Eason. When Eason went down in the first game, Lastinger didn’t expect Fromm to secure the role moving forward.
“You heard some talk in the summer that this guy can beat Eason out,” he said. “I’m thinking to myself, for the second straight year we’re going to have a true freshman at quarterback. I’m not sure that that’s where we need to be. I think Jacob Eason is a remarkable talent. He’s going to make a lot of money one day on Sundays. So I felt like we needed to get him back in a hurry.
“But again, you go back to Jake Fromm and he just kept getting better every week. It’s been amazing to me. I thought we had to have Eason and his experience to get us to the next level.”
Lastinger hasn’t seen a player like Fromm from a leadership standpoint. He recalled Walker leading by example as a freshman, but Fromm taking over the locker room as he has is rare.
“He’s a special kid,” Lastinger said. “He’s got some intangibles that I’d heard about way back. To come acclimate, learn the offense and those types of things, to me it’s nothing short of remarkable what he’s doing. To be the leader he is is amazing. I’ve never been familiar with that. Herschel Walker was a leader as a freshman, but he was a leader by example. I don’t know what you compare him to.”
The last two quarterbacks to start a championship game for the Bulldogs hail from Valdosta, Lastinger and Buck Belue. Both men benefited from Walker, just as Fromm is helped by Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
“You have an offense that’s not designed around the quarterback,” Lastinger said. “You have some of these spread offenses, like Oklahoma, where Baker Mayfield has to make things happen. Georgia’s offense is where we want quarterbacks to make plays, but we’re not fooling anybody with what we’re going to try to do.
“That was certainly prevalent in my day. Difference was we didn’t have the throwing game. We didn’t even have it in the playbook where we had to throw it 40 times if all else fails. We would’ve been in big trouble because the scheme we’re running is not what Fromm is running.”
It’s perhaps an unfair question, but Lastinger was asked to compare Walker to Georgia’s present-day duo. He admitted that while handing off to Walker, he didn’t realize just how special he was. Three decades later, he gets it.
“I’m a huge fan of Nick and Sony, and even D’Andre Swift,” he said. “The beauty of it with them is they don’t have to carry it 35, 40 times a game. Hershel was carrying it 40 times a game, and looking back, it’s amazing seeing him do what he did. To me, it sets him apart from those two, but I don’t want to take anything away from those two because they’re special. It’s hard not to love them both. But gosh, one guy running it 40 times. ... They’re all special. For Hershel, that third and fourth quarter, I don’t think there’ll ever be another one.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has his own ties to Valdosta, with his first job coming at Valdosta State in 2000 as a defensive backs coach making $8,000 a year. Lastinger would have him over for dinner and the two got to know each other during Smart’s two-year stint before jumping to Florida State.
Lastinger has always been impressed by Smart. He praised him for being more patient than most Nick Saban assistants, staying with Saban at LSU, the Miami Dolphins and Alabama while waiting for the right opportunity. He brought the culture change Georgia needed, according to Lastinger.
“I think he’s got a great staff,” Lastinger said. “That’s on and off the field. And his attention to detail. He leaves nothing uncovered, which is something he probably learned under Saban. Kirby’s a bright guy. He was an all-academic SEC football player. He’s taken a lot of what he’s learned from Saban and others and blended it in with his enthusiasm.”
“He’ll have some more growing pains. We won’t do this every year. I just think he’s the right fit for what we needed. We had a successful football program, but we weren’t relevant. We weren’t at the next level. If there’s someone to get us there, I think it’s a guy like Kirby Smart.”
Smart’s brought the Bulldogs to a place they haven’t been in 35 years. And if they win behind a freshman gunner, Lastinger can say he really has seen it all.
About the Author
