Some bold predictions for college football quarterbacks in 2019

(Photo by Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
(Photo by Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
college football
(Photo by Bobby McDuffie/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

College football quarterbacks can make or break a game, or even a season (right, Georgia?). Here are some bold predictions for a few key signal-callers in 2019.

When you scan over the rosters of potential College Football Playoff teams, one of the first names you’ll stop and truly analyze is the projected starting quarterback and his legion of backups.

This isn’t by accident. This is for good reason.

Even with a solid defense or an ultra-strong running game, it’s hard for a college football program to compete on a national level without a decent quarterback or – as in the case of Ohio State in 2014 – a handful of them.

I dusted off the old Magic 8-Ball, looked into some tea leaves in the bottom of my cup, and channeled Carnac the Magnificent for a few hours, coming up with these bold predictions for some quarterbacks this season.

Jake Fromm will have a breakout season for Georgia

Jake Fromm burst onto the scene in 2017 when he took over for an injured Jacob Eason. He calmly led the Georgia Bulldogs into a National Championship matchup with Alabama that season, and then followed up by taking the Dawgs to a second straight SEC Championship Game (and second straight loss to the Tide and their reserve quarterback).

With a resume like that you’d think there wasn’t much left for young Fromm to accomplish this season.

You’d be wrong.

Fromm has been the recipient of the “Game Manager” label practically since the middle of his freshman year. Despite putting up some pretty decent numbers and showing that he can spin the ball when he has to, most simply don’t want to give him the credit of being a true game-on-his-shoulders quarterback.

That will all change in 2019.

Georgia will still be a running team, with plenty of horses in the backfield to keep defenses from keying on Fromm, but with the departure of former offensive coordinator and play-caller Jim Chaney to the Vols, fans should expect to see a few more pass wrinkles in the Georgia playbook this year.

James Coley — who served as co-offensive coordinator under Chaney — will stretch the field, use the tight ends, and put the speed of running backs D’Andre Swift and Zamir White on display with some running back screen plays. We’ll get to see a side of Jake Fromm that hasn’t been part of his game since his senior year of high school. Expect some lofty numbers from Fromm and some consideration for the Heisman Trophy if all goes well.