Kirby Smart won’t commit to JT Daniels just yet

Maybe it won’t be JT Daniels who starts Week 1 for Georgia football in 2020?

Kirby Smart has himself a quarterback competition he didn’t even fully anticipate having.

The Georgia football team was dealt a tough blow a few days ago when Wake Forest Demon Deacons graduate transfer Jamie Newman opted out of the 2020 season and will prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft. That would leave USC Trojans transfer JT Daniels to be the Week 1 starter vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks, right? Not so fast, says Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Who else could start for the Dawgs beside JT Daniels in Week 1 this season?

Daniels is working his way back from a torn ACL suffered in Week 1 last season when he was still at USC. Though Smart expects him to be ready to go Week 1, he is being challenged for the starting job by D’Wan Mathis, who redshirted last year after undergoing surgery for a cyst in his brain in May 2019. While both win the job, Smart doesn’t feel either one is running away with it.

“It almost feels like you really want the guys to assume the lead, take the lead and that hasn’t happened yet,” said Smart. “You’re liable to have a great play or a great series and come back with a boneheaded mistake or a turnover. Nobody has really just taken charge and taken over. I wish I could say that.”

While true freshman Carson Beck and last year’s backup to Jake Fromm in Stetson Bennett IV are competing as well, we’re poised to get either Daniels or Mathis under center when the Dawgs take on Sam Pittman’s Hogs over in Fayetteville on Sept. 26. Though we have to believe Daniels is the front-runner to win the job, the longer Mathis stays around, the more likely it might go to him.

Let’s be real for a second here. Georgia could start seemingly anyone at quarterback and still beat the tar out of Arkansas. The Hogs have been the worst team in the SEC the last two years. They haven’t won a conference game since 2017 when Bret Bielema went 1-7 in his final season in SEC play. Chad Morris was a dumpster fire and everybody in Arkansas paid a price for it.

This is Pittman’s first season as a Power 5 coach, as he was Smart’s offensive line coach and ace recruiter the last few years. We have a belief that he’ll get it turned around in Fayetteville in a few years, but even with former Florida Gators transfer quarterback Feleipe Franks under center, the Hogs are at too much of a talent disadvantage to hang with a national title-contending UGA team.

Though they can kick the can for a few more weeks if they really want to, the Dawgs need to have a plan in place by the time Week 2 of their season arrives. The hated Auburn Tigers will come to the Classic City and losing at home to Auburn is not an option. It hasn’t happened in a decade-plus and a global pandemic shouldn’t be any excuse for the Dawgs to not come out on top in Week 2.

Admittedly, you can’t go wrong with either guy in Week 1 vs. Arkansas. Daniels was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and Mathis was a four-star. They are both immensely talented and may the best man win. A fully healthy Daniels should have the edge over Mathis, but it has been Mathis who has turned heads in fall camp this season. Maybe he’ll get his opportunity?

Smart is being smart by not telling Pittman who his Week 1 starter will be in a few weeks’ time.

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