Underdog Fromm Will Look to Repeat History, It Won't be Easy

There’s probably a lot of people out there right now saying Jake Fromm made a big mistake by going pro early and then being drafted in the fifth round by the Buffalo Bills. I don’t think so.  

The reasons Fromm was a fifth-round pick are likely the same reasons he would have been a similar-round pick had he waited until the 2021 NFL Draft.

Fromm was the number one quarterback the last three years at one of the most successful programs in the country. So, no real improving on that.

His stats are what they were. Were they likely to change dramatically had he stuck around for his senior season? Probably not. Last time I checked the Bulldogs did not have a wide receiver corps anywhere close to the ones that provided the incredible supporting cast enjoyed by LSU’s Joe Burrow and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa.

So, what kind of pro quarterback will Fromm be? Being a fifth-round pick will make his life a lot tougher. Let’s face it, higher round picks get a greater opportunity to prove themselves…and fail…and prove themselves again than lower round picks.

So, when his opportunity comes, he’ll need to seize it, and not with “okay” performances but outstanding performances. The type of performances that make it impossible for a head coach to put you back on the bench.

Kind of like what he did in his first game as a college football player. When Jacob Eason was injured in the 2017 opener, Fromm played Lou Gehrig to Eason’s Wally Pipp and never gave the job back.  Kind of like what Tom Brady did to Drew Bledsoe.  He will need to reprise that role when opportunity comes knocking in the NFL.

It won’t be impossible. There were five quarterbacks who started in the NFL last season who were drafted lower than Fromm’s fifth round pick and number 167 selection overall. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kyle Allen, Gardner Minshew, Case Keenum and the GOAT, TB 12, the Patron Saint of all Quarterbacks who ever thought they were overlooked and undervalued.

Fromm’s designation as a fifth-round pick is largely based on the things that he does not do well.  According to NFL.com’s draft analysis, Fromm lacks “premium physical tools. Arm talent and velocity are below average. His throws lack a tight spiral.”

Now these were the positives: “Typically unrattled in high-leverage battles. Good leader with football intelligence for the chess match. Full-field reader who values the football. Gets through progressions in clean, timely fashions. Quick feet. Waits for route development in the face of pressure. Gets rid of the ball rather than take a sack.”

So, the short of all that is, Fromm is not a great athlete when compared to others at his position in the NFL.  But he is very smart and makes great decisions.

After watching football all my life, I will take the good athlete at quarterback who is smart over the great athlete at quarterback who is not. Of course, in a perfect world I will take the great athlete at quarterback who is also smart.

Fromm has a chance. Will he be a star in the NFL? Unlikely. But I really did not consider him a star in college football (not like say the aforementioned Burrow or Tagovailoa). Instead his “stardom” was a product of being the starting quarterback for a highly successful team with a rabid fan base.

A lot will depend upon things beyond his control. How quickly will he get a chance?

Fromm was selected to back-up 23-year-old Josh Allen who just two years ago became the highest drafted quarterback in Buffalo Bills history when he was chosen with the seventh pick in 2018.  That means a lot of money and the reputation and credibility of many in the Bills’ front office are tied-up in Allen.

Fromm will have to be extraordinary with limited opportunity to beat him out. It is the NFL so the most likely scenario is that chance will come because of injury. If and when that opportunity comes, Fromm must seize it just as he did three years ago in Athens.

In Age of Coronavirus, Georgia Bulldogs get Creative for G-Day

The Georgia Bulldogs will hold their annual spring football G-Day celebration Saturday, it just won’t be what fans are accustomed to. As the nation continues in its shutdown from coronavirus, the Bulldogs have come-up with a creative way to engage their fans, even if the football team cannot play.  

It will be a virtual G-Day.

Instead of 90-thousand fans packing into Sanford Stadium, Georgia’s big win over Notre Dame last season will be rebroadcast on SEC Network with Coach Kirby Smart interacting with fans via his Twitter account during the replay of that game.  The Georgia radio broadcast team will also “chop it up” with fans on the Bulldogs Facebook page.

“It was probably one of the all-time greatest atmospheres in Sanford Stadium (for that game last September),” said Chuck Dowdle, the long-time former television sports anchor who is now the sideline reporter for the Georgia radio team. “It was one of the greatest games in college football last season.”

“This is an opportunity for fans to connect with the program when there’s not a lot of ways to connect right now,” explained Alan Thomas, UGA Associate Athletic Director for External Operations.

The idea actually started with Coach Smart. 

He approached the Bulldogs marketing and promotions department with the concept of connecting with fans in the absence of the annual G-Day Game. SEC Network had planned to replay Georgia’s 2019 spring game this Saturday but jumped at the idea of rebroadcasting the Dawgs’ 23-17 win over the Fighting Irish with Smart’s social media involvement.

“This is going to be fun,” exclaimed Dowdle. “Everybody looks forward to G-Day. This gives people something to watch and break the monotony of social distancing at home.”

The plans for Georgia’s virtual G-Day Game come in the same week that Vice President Mike Pence met with college football commissioners about plans for the 2020 season in the wake of the current pandemic.  The big news coming out of that 30-minute conference call was that commissioners told Pence that college sports could not restart until campuses reopened.

“We are not in control. All we can do is make contingency plans,” said Thomas. “We’re preparing contingencies for everything, from the green light is go and we’re back to normal, to number two are we having events where we have to limit fan bases or will we go through a time where we are still not having events?”

Dowdle described UGA athletic officials as “cautiously optimistic.” He hosts the 30-minute Bulldog Roundtable daily on Atlanta sports talk radio station 680 The Fan. “Time is our ally. We are still nine weeks away from the first of summer.”

But the clock is ticking. 

“If you’re looking in the future to give a game ball, that game ball is going to go to modern medicine as they come-up with immunizations or vaccines to protect people from the virus so people can come back and enjoy the sport,” said Thomas.

While the wait for that continues, the Bulldogs will entertain fans with a G-Day Saturday, if only virtually.

GHSA Remains Hopeful in 2020 Football Season Amid Coronavirus

The Georgia High School Association is still at least two months away from having to make tough decisions about the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the 2020 football season. “I hate to talk about it. I don’t want to add to the angst that’s already out there. We will prepare for the worst and pray for the best,” said Robin Hines, the Executive Director of the GHSA.

When President Donald Trump spoke with commissioners of the nation’s major professional sports leagues and associations last week, he met with the industry’s “big business” leaders.” By comparison one might refer to high school football as the “small sports business” of this country. But collectively it’s also big business. On any given Football Friday in Georgia one could conservatively estimate 200,000 fans are in hundreds of stadiums across the state with tens of thousands more watching on GPB.

Much like its college football counterparts, the GHSA may be faced with decisions like delaying the start of the season, shortening the season, or perhaps not even playing the season at all.

“Losing the Fall season would be catastrophic,” said Hines. Again, much like college football, high school football is critical to funding the other sports programs at most schools and within the GHSA itself.

But Hines stressed the GHSA still has a “long way to go before summer gets here.” The Executive Director believes that if football programs can start their strength and conditioning programs in the first or second weeks after the Fourth of July holiday, the season can be played as scheduled.

“It would be hard if the first time we see our team is the first of August. That would mean putting on pads just two weeks later,” said Buford High School Coach Bryant Appling. Only four months ago, Appling led the Wolves to the GHSA 5A State Championship with a dramatic 17-14 overtime win over Warner Robins. It was Buford’s 12^th state title (second most in Georgia history), but their first since 2014.

The fear of cutting short summer strength and conditioning is the number of injuries that might result.  As Coach Appling points out stretching and core strength are so important to staying healthy in football. 

Hines knows that from personal experience. Back in the early 1990s when he was the head coach at Westover High school, his team lost valuable off-season training time due to historic flooding in Albany. “I remember how difficult it was from a strength and conditioning standpoint,” Hines said. “It was almost like we had to play ourselves into shape.”

Blessed Trinity Coach Tim McFarlin sees a bigger question. “How comfortable are fans going to feel about filling in the stands?” Although he doesn’t see games being played in empty stadiums, he said, “There are a lot of adjustments that are going to come out of the coronavirus crisis.”

Back in December, McFarlin led the Titans to their third consecutive state championship when B.T. defeated Oconee County 17-14 in the GHSA 4A Final. McFarlin became the 14^th coach in state history to win four state titles. “I’m going to remain positive. I think we’ll get the all clear to play. High school football has a big opportunity to bring our country and communities back together.”

McFarlin’s football program is rare in that the Titans don’t conduct spring football practice. He prefers for his players to play spring sports instead and believes the importance of spring football can be overrated. “For the first time ever this season, eight teams will win state championships this December without having played spring football. That might change some peoples’ minds about it.”

In the meantime, many coaching staffs and players are staying connected via video conferencing. Coach Appling believes this is essential to his players learning the team’s offense and defense prior to finally being able to get back together. Meantime coaches are counting on players to work out on their own and stay in shape. “Coaches will figure out pretty quick,” whether they did or not Appling said.

Appling is banking on his seniors to lead the way during this time away. He’s telling them, they’ve got to take charge of their position groups, guide and instruct underclassmen. He believes players will listen to seniors quicker than they will coaches.

“Players are chomping at the bit,” Appling said. “Many players didn’t realize how much they loved it, until it was gone.” McFarlin is seeing the same thing. “I’ve got kids who hate to go to class who now can’t wait to get back.”

McFarlin believes this age of social distancing will create a greater emphasis on relationships and not taking them for granted.

“I look forward to being able to hug somebody again.”

When that day finally comes, blocking and tackling can’t be too far behind.

There's No Crying in Baseball but I Sure Feel Like It

Mill Creek Coach Doug Jones was mowing and trimming the Hawks’ baseball field Wednesday when he got the bad news. His son Beau, who played for him and is now a junior righthanded pitcher at the University of North Georgia, told him Governor Brian Kemp had just announced that public schools would be closed for the rest of the academic year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With that, Mill Creek’s season was officially over. Although it had seemed inevitable, baseball coaches around the state had hoped students could return to school and  seasons be completed.  Now that won’t happen. Despite playing only one home game, ironically the last game the Hawks played, Mill Creek finished with a 14-1 record. They ended up number one in the Max Preps Georgia Rankings and No. 4 in the National Rankings.

Could the Hawks have won the state championship?  “I don’t know,” said Jones, “I knew we had a solid ballclub. The question mark always comes down to, ‘Do you have the arms?’ ”  One of those arms is/was left-hander Zach Green who has signed with Louisiana Tech. 

Green was hanging out with Beau when Coach Jones got home from the field.  They were watching the classic pitching match-up between John Smoltz and Jack Morris in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series on MLB Network.  Neither were even born when the Twins beat the Braves 1-0 in 10 innings to win the World Championship that year.

“It was probably the weirdest experience,” said Coach Jones.  “I just wanted to run up and hug him but right now that’s not appropriate.  My heart hurts for him and all the other guys.”  Coach Jones was going to spend Thursday calling each one of his players on the phone.

Up the road in Athens, that reality had touched home much earlier with the cancellation of the college baseball season.  “It’s just surreal,” said Georgia Bulldogs Coach Scott Stricklin.  “It hits me about once every hour.  I just can’t believe this is happening.  I thought we had a chance to do something special this season.”

He thought that for good reason.  The Bulldogs’ season ended on the eve of their SEC opener with the team getting ready to take on the No. 1 ranked Florida Gators.  Georgia was right behind them in the Top 25, ranked second in the nation with a 14-4 record. 

With two projected first round draft picks in the starting rotation in junior righthander Emerson Hancock and sophomore righthander Cole Wilcox, the Dawgs had a great shot at returning to the College World Series for the first time since 2008. Maybe they’d have won their second national championship and first since 1990.

Now like everybody else, Coach Stricklin is “shrugging his shoulders because there’s still a lot of questions to be answered.”  Questions like roster management.  As Stricklin pointed out, college baseball teams are going to have “overflooded rosters” next season.

That’s a result of the NCAA’s decision to grant all spring athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the season lost to the coronavirus shutdown.  Now senior players have the option of returning next season.  Many junior players who would have been selected in the MLB Draft, won’t now that the draft has been reduced from 40 rounds to five.  Then there are all the incoming freshmen who signed in the 2020 recruiting classes.

Coach Stricklin believes the NCAA did “right by the student athletes (who played only a third of the season.) But anytime you fix one problem, you create others.  It’s tough.  It’s going to affect everybody.” 

And make tough decisions, even tougher.  That’s the story for North Gwinnett star and Bulldogs’ 2020 signee Corey Collins.  He’s one of the top high school catchers in the nation and will likely be a very high pick in the MLB Draft, which has been pushed back from June until July.  The wait will be excruciatingly long for most players.

“It’s hard,” said Collins, “and if people tell you that it’s not, they’re lying to you.  But everybody is in the same boat.  It might make a difference for some people, including me.  But whether I go pro or go to college, I will have to work my butt off.  Fight for my spot every day.”

Strangely enough from a recruiting standpoint, it appears the high school players whose futures are being impacted the most are the junior classes.  While most high school senior players have their future destinations determined, this is the season recruiting really ramps up for juniors.  “There’s uncertainty.  There’s kids with high aspirations, trying to make a name for themselves,” said Coach Jones.

Like everybody else in the country, players and coaches are hoping that as a nation “we can flatten the curve.” It’s a term that has become a part of our everyday language but ironically has nothing to do with baseball.  Epidemiologists use the term to describe plans of slowing the rate of viral infection.  Perhaps if successful we all could return to some semblance of normal by Memorial Day.

If that were the case, “the summer season would be huge, because the high school season got crushed.  The Fall season would be massively important as well.”  Those are the words of Jeff Auterson, Director of Instruction for Auterson Baseball.  He’s a former high school baseball star himself who played six seasons in the Dodgers minor league system.

Auterson Baseball provides individual and group instruction for young ballplayers and fields 18 teams, ages 8-18 in its Georgia Jackets travel baseball program.  All group instruction and travel ball had ceased several weeks ago with social distancing mandates but individual instruction had continued until late this week. That came to an abrupt end with Gov. Kemp’s shelter in place order for the entire state.  “The fear has been a crippler” for Auterson’s business. 

Auterson is optimistic there will be travel ball this summer, believing the season could be expanded with tournaments stretching into July if they get the all-clear to play.  If that happens, it will be a tremendous reprieve for high school juniors who are now dealing with a “short window for schools” to evaluate them.

In the meantime, players have to make do.  Collins knows a friend who has a batting cage in his basement.  Former major league pitcher Ryan Vogelsong lets Collins throw “in his big front yard.”  Collins and his buddies might get together for a whiffle ball game but as the high school senior points out, “you can’t go to the park without being arrested.”

For Coach Jones there’s no need to tend to the field for now, he’ll tend to his players the best he can while maintaining social distance.  “Our job as high school coaches is to help guide, be a sounding board, be a counselor.  I tell my players all the time…listen to me…chew on what I have to say…swallow it or spit it out.”

The 2020 season has been a tough one to swallow.