Greyson Lambert to start for Georgia Bulldogs vs. North Carolina Tar Heels

Redshirt senior Greyson Lambert will be the starting quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs in their Week 1 game against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

According to Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has named redshirt senior Greyson Lambert the team’s starting quarterback for their Week 1 tilt against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

This is the second summer in a row that Lambert has won the starting quarterback job in Athens. He knocked off Faton Bauta and Brice Ramsey last season, before besting Ramsey and promising true freshman Jacob Eason this fall.

While many in Dawg Nation might’ve wanted to see Eason start from Week 1 in 2016, one has to realize that Smart is a defense-first football coach and will want to run a conservative passing attack early this season while Eason develops.

Lambert went 10-2 in his first year as a starter for the 2015 Bulldogs under then-head coach Mark Richt, throwing for 1,959 yards, 12 touchdowns, and only two interceptions as the Bulldogs starting quarterback. His two losses as a starter were to the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers in back-to-back weeks in early October.

With Lambert, Smart can lean on his accurate, game-managing quarterback during the toughest part of Georgia’s schedule this fall. North Carolina won the ACC Coastal last year and are very much in the mix to repeat in 2016. Georgia, Meanwhile, has two other important games in the first part of the season: at Ole Miss in Week 3 and home versus Tennessee in Week 5.

Georgia has an elite running game and a strong offensive line, making Lambert  — who doesn’t throw interceptions nearly as often as he did at Virginia — the most reliable starter for the Bulldogs in Week 1.

Eason certainly has the raw talent to overtake Lambert as some point this season, but Week 1 against a top 25 program like North Carolina at the Georgia Dome isn’t the ideal entry point for the Eason era in Athens.

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Lambert won’t exactly open up offensive coordinator Jim Chaney’s patented aerial attack, but he does give the Bulldogs the best chance to win what promises to be a true Week 1 slugfest on Saturday. Eason might play on a handful of downs here and there, but Lambert has earned the opportunity to start.