ATHENS – The story of Justin Fields in Georgia has been told time and time again, and it will no doubt be executed during the College Football Playoff Championship Game broadcast of Alabama vs. Ohio State Monday night.
The story always ends the same way, with Fields being transferred to Ohio State and Bulldogs fans mourning him for leaving the program before he could realize his talents in red and black.
Another twist to the story was recently revealed after Coach Kirby Smart was asked on a recent podcast if Fields should have stayed in Georgia.
“This is a great question,” Smart said, knowing better than anyone that Fields’ decision to leave UGA was one of the most polarizing moments in Georgia’s recent sports history.
The Fields people see now are not the same player who naturally came to Athens as freshmen, now three years older, wiser, stronger and better.
Indeed, and many do not know and have not forgotten that Jake Fromm led UGA to the brink of a national championship the season before Fields arrived.
Fromm had the benefit of a full season’s experience and success with the versatile Pro-Style offense after accepting the post when incumbent Jacob Eason was injured in the 2017 season for the opening of the season.
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So, while Fields the most talented quarter in Georgia 2018, he was not yet the best quarter in the team, and so he did not win the starting lineup.
Smart Champions Fields
Smart never stopped holding Fields, despite the false narrative that Georgia simply let him go.
RELATED: Smart on Justin Fields: ‘We Want Him to Stay’
Smart has so much respect for Fields that he allowed himself to attend a closed subject last August before the state of Ohio resumed its football season. This created a bit of a stir among some UGA donors who were not allowed to attend at the time, but also not with some players’ families.
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By the start of the season, the Bulldogs had enough other quarterback drama that Fields’ attendance was a distant memory.
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‘(Fields) is a wonderful kid, his sister plays softball here, he’s a very strong, well-rounded kid, ‘Smart said in a recent podcast of’ All Things Covered ‘hosted by his friend Bryant McFadden. “So many players on the team loved him very much.”
The fans and media were also high on Fields, and expectations followed him to Georgia.
“With the new recruitment period we are living in, and the hype that follows the No. 1 top player, he and Trevor (Lawrence) were really the top two players that came out in the country,” Smart said. “And they happened to be 30 miles apart, and there were a lot of comparisons between Justin and Trevor.”
Smart revealed for the first time that Fields feels extra pressure to get on the field early due to the success Lawrence had his true freshman season at Clemson.
RELATED: Trevor Lawrence Wins FWAA Newcomer of the Year, Divides Alabama
‘It was very clear to us early in the year that since Trevor was successful, and started playing, and in the Texas A&M game (second of the season) he climbed in and played more and more, Justin did the same felt like, ‘Hey, I’m as good as he is, and I’ll get a chance to play,’ ‘Smart said.
“And at the time, we had Jake Fromm, who played pretty well.”
Lawrence earned the starting lineup at Clemson in the fifth game of the season, while Fields viewed action in 12 of 14 games as a backup.
Flashback to Jake Fromm
Fromm was fourth in the country to pass on his efficiency through the first six games of the 2018 season and completed 72 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Georgia was in second place in the country and returned at the national championships for another shot. The Bulldogs averaged 485 yards per game and 42.1 points per outing, despite the clock winning in the fourth quarter of the standouts.
How could Smart or any coach at the time have made a quarterback change?
But then came a 36-16 loss to a rising star at LSU named Joe Burrow in Game 7.
Many people wondered if there could be a change in the following bee week in the run-up to the all-important game in Florida against the Gators.
But others, like Kirk Herbstreit and Tim Tebow, do not.
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Fromm responded with a 36-17 win over the Gators, 17-of-24 that passed 240 yards, 3 touchdowns and no turnover.
Georgia lost the SEC Championship game against Alabama that season, 35-28, but Fromm was 25-of-39 for 301 yards with three touchdowns and no interception against the tide.
“(Fromm) played good football and played with Alabama in the SEC Championship, and we did not play really well defensively, ”said Smart. “But Jake did a lot of good things. It was really a difficult situation to manage because Justin is extremely talented. ”
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The infamous falsehood
Fields was so talented that Smart worked all year on a fake score designed for Alabama scoring. Fields would stop it from a formation that Georgia had never known before.
The Bulldogs practiced it over and over and over and over again for the exact situation they found themselves in late in the game against Alabama.
Fourth-and-11 on the 50-yard line, game tied 28-28, 3 1/2 minutes left to play.
Fields was late at the moment, and then quick to throw up on the throw, scrambling for a 2-yard gain on the change of possession.
‘“I thought it was there, and it was there today,” Smart said at the time. ‘We’re going to catch the ball fast. We took too long to snap the ball. They did not cover a man. We had a guy. It took us so long to grasp it, that they recognized it and let the man get coverage. ‘
The long snapper Nick Moore has indeed announced that specific work has been done on the play for the Tide.
RELATED: Georgia players were bought on a fake point call, it was there
“We’ve been rehearsing the play for two years,” Moore said. “It’s designed for the Alabama vault.”
Some still question the call, but those watching the replay see receiver Mecole Hardman running open, acknowledging that execution was the biggest problem.
Fields indicated immediately after the game that he intended to return to Georgia and compete.
Fields said at CFP Media Day this week that he does not remember much.
“All I remember is that I went out on the point, everyone shouted my name and the point did not go the way we wanted,” Fields said. “It’s the only memory I have of that one play.”
Fields’ transfer to Ohio State
Fields was so talented that Smart brought him to the Sugar Bowl with the team, although Fields announced that he was entering the transfer portal before the team left Athens for New Orleans.
ESPN analyst Chris Fowler said at the time that Fields’ transfer technique from Athens could be a game changer in college football.
RELATED: Chris Fowler says Fields transfer could open Pandora’s Box
Many felt that Georgia, which brings Fields, had divided the locker room. As Smart noted, Fields was and is hugely popular among all of his Bulldogs teammates.
UGA players, who are still upset because they have been hampered by the College Football Playoff Committee, fall flat in a 28-21 loss to Texas.
Aside from the fact that Fields’ transfer was a distraction, Deandre Baker, the first round of the NFL draft, also came on the trip, though he informed staff he did not want to play, not to risk injuries not.
Furthermore, it appears to be the last game coached by offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who would sign a Tennessee deal nearly twice as much.
RELATED: Chaney Says ‘An Easy Decision’ to Leave for Tennessee
It was not a piece to say that the Sugar Bowl was not Georgia’s best game plan.
RELATED: Jim Chaney says Georgia ‘did right’ with the Justin Fields QB situation.
Smart has since changed its policy and not brought players to a bowling game that they prefer or on the verge of transfer.
The era of quarterback transfers has indeed arrived, as the last three signal callers to win the Heisman trophy – Burrow, Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield – have all been quarterbacks.
But while the Georgia offense struggled in 2019, Fields’ career with the Buckeyes began.
“You can not say that it (transfer) did not benefit him, because he had to go to a very good program, and he had to play right away, and he played a lot more football because he chose to go there,” he said. Smart said. ‘So you can not say that it was wrong or right, but I would say what you said earlier, the liability factor and guys who stick it out, sometimes pay it to do it. Especially in other positions. ”
Smart could certainly have used some retention at the receiver position after the 2018 season.
Many of the national critics who aimed at it, aimed at not finding a way to keep Fields Smart, did not mention the two main reasons to drop UGA’s pass in 2019:
• Five of the top six catchers of the 2018 team were no longer on the list.
• Six Georgia receivers in the 2019 team missed playing time due to injuries.
Smart calls it a ‘cheerful cycle’ of receivers when he explains why the Bulldogs’ passing is inconsistent.
Georgia finished “only” 12-2 in 2019 with Fromm under the center, and is number 4 in the country.
RELATED: Tim Tebow shares thoughts on Jake Fromm critique, Justin Fields transfer
Georgia QB Transfers, Come and Go
The Bulldogs also had a quarterback transfer in 2020 – and transferred – in.
When Fromm made the surprising decision to leave after the 2019 season – perhaps exhausted by the ongoing criticism on social media and comparisons to Fields’ success in Ohio State’s statistically friendly distribution scheme – Smart plunged into the transfer portal.
Jamie Newman was the choice, the Wake Forest QB wanted to play in a more NFL-friendly offensive scheme.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic intervened and forced Georgia to cancel the spring exercises. It took Newman the necessary time to learn the playbook and terminology that had arrived with the new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
RELATED: How Jamie Newman went from Heisman hype to opt-out
The Bulldogs dropped back into the transfer portal in May and landed JT Daniels, a quarterback who reclassified in the 2018 class after skipping his senior season, and was No. 3 behind Lawrence and Fields.
“Quarterback is unique because there is only one, you can only have one on the field,” Smart said. ‘You go to DB, if I’m not the best corner, then I should go play safety, or I might play nickel, or I play cents, so many other places to play and grow as a player and develop, where you can be patient be.
“Quarterback, it’s hard because there’s not just one on the field.”