The story behind Jacob Eason’s nickname

There are plenty of good football players with good nicknames, and the nation’s No. 1-rated high school quarterback is called “Skinny.”

Skinny is Jacob Eason, who is a five-star recruit 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, said with a laugh.

Everywhere Eason goes at Lake Stevens High School — located 45 miles north of Seatte — he answers only to his nickname. He likes the moniker so much that he uses it as his Twitter handle, which is @skinnyQB10.

Now with every good nickname, there’s a good story. You would think Eason earned his from his tall and lanky frame. After all, he was rail-thin as a freshman at 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds. But that’s not how it went down, as Eason and his father explained.

“When he was 2 or 3 years old, he had long and curly hair,” Tony said. “I always wanted to cut it, 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 …”

Added 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.”

“His mom isn’t fond of Skinny because it brings back bad memories for her,” Tony said with a smile. “He may be outgrowing it. I don’t know if it needs to follow him to Georgia, but we’ll see.”

If Eason carries his nickname over to the SEC, it won’t be because he’s skinny. Eason has added some muscle over the past two years. He’s pushing 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds as a rising senior.

“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 be ready for it.”