Gil Pound: Pound for Pillars and tangents

Jan. 17—My phone has a new background after Georgia's latest national championship win.

It shows the famed Arch, located at the north end of the University of Georgia campus, with two of its three supporting pillars replaced by the Bulldogs' College Football Playoff National Championship trophies.

Although I'm in no way done celebrating this latest title — as of this writing, I haven't even been to the parade yet — I can't help but think about what it's going to take to add a third golden pillar. Back-to-back championships make one greedy like that.

There's of course more to it than this, but the first place my mind goes is to the quarterback position. Stetson Bennett IV, college football's most polarizing figure, has left the building. To hear some tell it, he will soon apply for social security. The man's 25. He's not like former Florida State QB Chris Weinke, who won the Heisman at 28 years old, or Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden, who was also 28 when drafted by the Cleveland Browns. 25 may not be a conventional age for a college athlete, but it's not 28. Opposing fanbases need to stop with the age talk and admit they're just salty.

Small tangent there. Sorry about that.

Back to the center's behind, or rather the guy who plays behind center. Bennett is gone, leaving three possible replacements in Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, and Gunner Stockton. Beck is far and away the early favorite to take over. The Jacksonville native just completed his third season in Athens and still carries at least two more years of eligibility as a redshirt sophomore (I'm thinking he might have a third year due to COVID, if he wants it). Beck saw action in seven games this past season. Although they came in mop-up duty, his cumulative stats add up to one very strong performance at 26-of-35 passing for 310 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He knows offensive coordinator Todd Monken well at this point, and should be the guy taking first team reps this spring.

Vandagriff and Stockton are both Georgia boys who joined the program as highly-touted recruits, Vandagriff in January 2021 and Stockton about one year ago. Vandagriff has seen game action but has yet to throw a pass. Rabun County's Stockton ran the scout offense against Georgia's starting defense this year, which could be considered extremely valuable experience albeit on an uneven playing field. Vandagriff has reportedly considered transferring, so this horse race could become less crowded depending on how he feels coming out of spring ball.

I'm not here to advocate for one over the other two. I'd rather like to remind y'all about how the position of quarterback has been handled since Kirby Smart came to Athens in 2016. That first year was the most lackluster in Smart's tenure. A transition year is to be expected when a new regime enters and starts a freshman QB in Jacob Eason. The job was Eason's heading into 2017 until he got injured in the opener against Appalachian State. Enter Jake Fromm, who helped lead the Dawgs to an SEC Championship and was one blown coverage away from a national title. Fromm took the job and never gave it up, forcing the transfer of both Eason back to his home state Washington and Justin Fields to Ohio State.

Fromm held on to the starting role through 2019, which would be his final season in Athens. Then the program found itself in need of a QB. First it was Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman, but he left before ever having taken a snap. Next up was D'Wan Mathis, who quickly lost his shot in a bad performance versus Arkansas. Bennett saved the day, but everyone clamored for Southern Cal transfer J.T. Daniels to get starting snaps. He did once he became healthy, and did well with his shot. The job seemed to be his heading into 2021.

And was until the injury bug bit Daniels again. Bennett famously took over and led Georgia to its first national championship in over 40 years.

I say all that to say this: there should be legitimate concern for how the starting QB is chosen going into the 2023 campaign. More often than not, it's been injury that has forced Smart and his coaching staff to go to plan B, but wouldn't it be so much easier to just pick the right guy out of the gate?

Something to chew on as we pack up 2022 and trek off into that desert known as the offseason.