The spring before his freshman season, Jake Fromm competed toe-to-toe with incumbent starter Jacob Eason at quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs.
The next spring, Fromm’s primary competition came from 5-star signee Justin Fields, the nation’s top QB prospect. Entering his third spring in Athens, Eason and Fields are gone and he’s the undisputed leader of the Georgia offense - but still preparing for practice as if his job is on the line.
“It doesn’t change my preparation at all,” said Fromm, who has started 29 games for Georgia the last two seasons. “I’m still technically competing for a job. I’m always going to strive to get better. Whether I’m competing against somebody specifically or competing with my self, I’m always going to strive to be the best I can be.”
Now that Eason (Washington) and Fields (Ohio State) are no longer in Athens, the only others players in the quarterback meeting room with Fromm are walkon-turned-JUCO-transfer Stetson Bennett, 4-star signee and early enrollee Dwan Mathis and third-year walkon John Seter.
The dynamic is decidedly different, but Fromm said his attitude remains the same.
“I’m kind of in the role of a slight mentor,” Fromm said of his role. “I’m going to teach those guys things that I’ve learned from experience. Hopefully I can help those guys out, teach them how to communicate how to learn to learn, as far as the playbook. There’s a lot of things going on, a lot of things being thrown at them. I’m there. I’m a shoulder to lean on sometimes. I can’t wait to see those guys go out there and throw the football around.”
There have been several other significant changes on offense. The main one is the absence of offensive coordinator and veteran play-caller Jim Chaney. With Chaney’s departure for a significant pay raise at Tennessee, James Coley has been promoted into the role of sole offensive coordinator.
Coley, who had been a coordinator at Miami and Florida State previously, was Fromm’s position coach last year while also serving as co-coordinator. So while much will stay the same, Fromm expects there will be a lot of different as well.
And for Fromm, different is good.
“For me, I want to learn new things,” Fromm said. “If we changed up the terminology every single year, I wouldn’t be opposed to that, because I like learning. I want to be the best I can at everything. It offers a different twist. It makes me come in every day hungry and on the edge.”
Fromm’s immediate goals -- improving in the area of mobility while creating even more explosive plays as a passer. No reason at this point to think Fromm won’t make that happen.
“I want to make my teammates the best I can, the team the best I can, I want to be successful,” he said. “I want to win a lot of football games, I want to win the SEC Championship, I want to win the national championship, I want to be great. So I’m going to come in and compete and strive to be the best I can be every day.”
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