Quarterback quandaries could complicate the offseason for Alabama, Clemson and Georgia

Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports Published 3:57 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2017

SportsPulse: USA TODAY's college football reporters Paul Myerberg and George Schroeder give their take on who will win the Rose Bowl. USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES — The question seemed to irritate Georgia coach Kirby Smart, certainly because of the timing but perhaps because he knows deep down that a legitimate quandary is about to land on his plate.

Georgia will start Monday’s Rose Bowl with freshman Jake Fromm at quarterback, a natural leader who has played his role to perfection for the SEC champion. It will have a backup on the sidelines in sophomore Jacob Eason, a former five-star recruit who started last year and had the job until getting hurt early in the Bulldogs’ season opener. Next season Georgia will welcome Justin Fields, viewed by recruiting experts as one of the best quarterbacks the state has ever produced.

“Come on, why would we even bring that up right now?” Smart responded to a question about whether he would try to talk Eason into staying at Georgia next season. “Why is that a conversation right now?”

MORE: Georgia backup QB Jacob Eason doesn't question his role

MORE: Confidence never wanes for Georgia freshman QB Jake Fromm

WOLKEN COLUMN: College football's sleeping giant, Georgia, is wide awake

MORE: Three Alabama redshirt senior starters earn respect of team

Because in the realm of this sport, where rosters change every year but expectations remain crazy high, the euphoria for the winners in Monday’s College Football Playoff semifinals and the disappointment for the losers will fade away rather quickly. What lingers — not just for Georgia but for Clemson and Alabama as well — will be an offseason of drama surrounding the quarterback position. And it’s not hard to envision the conversation being shaped by what happens in the Playoff.

While Oklahoma’s future is also somewhat uncertain, that’s because Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield will depart and the cycle will start anew, likely with Texas A&M transfer Kyler Murray taking over at quarterback.

For the other three Playoff schools, the intrigue will be about whether experience and incumbency trumps potential.

That probably rings true for Alabama more than any team in the country. Despite his massive early career success, sophomore Jalen Hurts has become a polarizing player among Crimson Tide fans. Some see his 24-2 record as a starter, the electricity he can generate as a runner and his propensity to avoid big mistakes, while others have criticized his limitations as a passer (he’s thrown for 200 yards or more only twice this year) and believe he’s made Alabama too easy to for good teams to defend.

“Jalen has improved dramatically from last year to this year, and I think his consistency in performance throughout this past season was a lot better especially in the passing game,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “He’s always been a guy that because of his athleticism, his ability to run the ball, has made a lot of plays with his feet. But I also think that we’ve been able to help him develop as a quarterback in terms of his decision making in the pocket. When he’s done that well, he's been extremely effective.”

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports college football reporters Paul Myerberg and George Schroeder give their take on who will win the Sugar Bowl. USA TODAY Sports

But regardless of his development trajectory, it seems Alabama is gearing up for a competition next spring and into the fall with freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who carries almost a mythical reputation as potentially the best passer Nick Saban has ever recruited.

Saban never has been afraid of putting his players in competitive situations, of wiping the slate clean every year and making them earn their jobs. It’s part of what sustains his program as the gold standard: The players who give him the best chance to win will play.

But quarterback decisions have unique implications. They shape identities and styles. They can cause divisions. And if Alabama wins a national title this year with Hurts, it seems almost unfathomable that he could lose his job with two years of eligibility remaining. And where would that leave Tagovailoa, who certainly didn’t come to Alabama to wait three years?

Conversely, wouldn’t it be easier for Saban — at least politically — to push the reset button the quarterback position if Alabama falls short of a national title again this year?

On the other sideline Monday, Clemson’s quarterback issue will have a much different tone, given Dabo Swinney’s history of handling his quarterbacks and the timing between the arrival of Trevor Lawrence — ranked by some experts as the No. 1 quarterback in this recruiting class — and the end of current starter Kelly Bryant’s career.

For Clemson, 2017 was viewed largely as a bridge year at quarterback between Deshaun Watson’s exit for the NFL and Lawrence taking over, perhaps right away in 2018. Swinney opened up the competition this fall between Bryant, redshirt freshman Zerrick Cooper and Hunter Johnson, a five-star recruit out of Indiana.

Bryant won the job going away, but he was still an unknown quantity, having played sparingly as Watson's backup his first two seasons. His performance, however, kept the Clemson machine going, as he completed 67% of his passes with six interceptions while proving to be an even more adept runner than Watson in the Tigers’ spread system.

Swinney values experience and is sensitive to the team dynamics of displacing a trusted leader who has performed well — Clemson was slow to promote Watson over Cole Stoudt in 2014 — so you can probably pencil in Bryant as the Tigers’ starter to open his senior year as the starter. The more dramatic battle could be in 2019 between Lawrence and Johnson, unless he decides to transfer. At the same time, Clemson staffers gush over Lawrence, a 6-6 specimen who will have the physical tools to play right away.

“He’s just way ahead of Deshaun from a physical standpoint,” Swinney said on Dec. 20 when Lawrence, who was committed to the Tigers for a year, finally could sign his scholarship papers. “We’ll see where he is mentally and how he transitions and all that once he gets here and we start coaching. I don’t think that you really know that until you start coaching a guy, but he’s been well prepared, well groomed.”

Georgia and Clemson face a similar issue: How do you create competition between two highly rated prospects who enrolled within a year of each other while convincing both of them to stay in an era where quarterbacks are often quick to seek a safe landing if they don’t play early?

Eason, to his credit, has handled the situation with class. Even though he was back to 100% midway through the season, it was basically impossible for Georgia to pull the job from Fromm after he led the Bulldogs to a Week 2 win at Notre Dame, setting the stage for a 9-0 start.

“He’s playing really well,” Eason said. “He’s done a great job of taking this team great places. He’s been a great leader. I’m super proud of him and want him to do the best he can do and win the ballgame. I’m part of this team as well and I’m always going to root for Jake no matter what. I love the kid he’s done a great job.”

Still, Eason believes deep down that Georgia also would have gotten here if he had remained at the controls the offense. We’ll never know if that’s the case, but after showing some flashes of greatness along with inconsistency as a freshman, he needs to play to find out how good he can be.

There’s no guarantee that will happen at Georgia, which leads to natural speculation that he’ll transfer, perhaps closer to his home near Seattle. Likewise, you can’t exactly pencil Fromm into the starting job at Georgia for the next two or three years regardless of what happens in the Playoff. In one scenario, he’ll have to start his competition anew with Eason this spring. In another, he could spend 2018 and beyond trying to hold off Fields, which might be difficult to do given the hype.

Though its first national title since 1980 would bring euphoria to Athens, keeping everyone happy probably isn’t in the cards.

“Seems to me like their job is to keep me happy,” offensive coordinator Jim Chaney joked. “All the recruiting and stuff is behind us, so now the rubber hits the road and you’ve got to go out there and do it. I don't know what's going to happen in the future.”

But the groundwork for that future will begin being laid as soon as the semifinals are over.

Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook scrambles during the Orange Bowl against Miami. Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback quandaries could complicate the offseason for Alabama, Clemson and Georgia

Posted!

Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries: