Georgia football: Jamie Newman has opted out due to COVID-19 uncertainties

Georgia football presumptive starting quarterback and Heisman candidate Jamie Newman has reportedly opted out of the season.

Georgia football’s national title hopes just took a massive hit with starting quarterback Jamie Newman opting out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns.

Newman, a Wake Forest transfer, was the leading candidate to start at quarterback and was among the leading Heisman hopefuls. Now, Georgia is faced with a massive change as the season starts on Sept. 26.

According to Yahoos! Pete Thamel as well as The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman and Seth Emerson, Newman has opted out and will prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft where he’s considered one of the top five quarterback prospects, but probably not a first-round prospect at this time.

Georgia football quarterback Jamie Newman opts out and the Bulldogs must now hope USC transfer JT Daniels is healthy and ready to assume the starting job.

Newman confirmed the news himself with a statement he released on Twitter.

Throughout the offseason, Newman had been working tirelessly to get himself ready for his first SEC campaign. Smart and the Georgia coaches had praised him for being in great shape. Early on in practice, Newman had been showcasing his rocket for an arm as well.

Last year for Wake Forest, he threw for 2,868 yards and 26 touchdowns, while adding six more rushing scores. As soon as he announced he’d be a grad transfer, countless schools reached out to him. Georgia of course was in the market for a new signal-caller after Jake Fromm left school early to enter the 2020 NFL Draft.

These newest updates on Newman are no doubt a shocker, as there was no sign he was even considering sitting out this season. He seemed poised to come out on top of his quarterback battle with JT Daniels, who is coming off a torn ACL he suffered while starting for USC last fall.

Daniels will immediately get thrown into the starter’s role for Georgia after he was given immediate eligibility. Although Smart mentioned over the weekend after the Dawgs scrimmaged that Daniels is still not fully cleared after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half of USC’s season-opener last year. He’ll have to get healthy and ready for the SEC grind in a hurry now that Newman has removed himself from the equation.

Imagine saying that even six months ago.

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