While Smart won’t announce starting QB, Mason says he isn’t ‘fooled’

Derek Mason said he isn’t being fooled.

In fact, the Vanderbilt head coach insinuated that any attempt for Georgia head coach Kirby Smart to conceal who is starting at quarterback will ultimately amount to nothing.

Mason is certain that freshman quarterback Jake Fromm will start when Georgia travels to Vanderbilt for Saturday’s game. Fromm has been Georgia’s starting quarterback since sophomore Jacob Eason suffered a sprained knee in the season opener against Appalachian State. This season, Fromm has thrown for 734 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions.

The reasons are clear not to make a change, Mason said. Fromm has won four consecutive starts and just led his team to a 41-0 victory over Tennessee.

Mason believes it makes complete sense to stick with Fromm given Georgia’s start to the 2017 season.

“Right now, I believe Fromm is the guy,” Mason said during his weekly news conference Tuesday. “I believe Eason is an extremely talented quarterback. That’s up to Kirby with who he decides to go with. He’s not fooling me if that’s what we think we’re doing here. That young man, Fromm, has won ball games.”

Following Georgia’s practice, Smart was asked if Mason is right in his assumption.

“Derek Mason is entitled to his opinion,” Smart said. “Derek Mason isn’t at our practices. He isn’t watching our practice tape that I know of. I’m not really concerned with those comments.”

Mason doesn’t believe hiding the starting quarterback’s identity will matter much to Georgia. The Bulldogs are off to their best start since the 2012 season and have won with an efficient offense and a defense that has held opponents to 9.2 points per game.

While both Fromm and Eason offer different attributes at the position, Mason, judging by his reaction captured on video, seemed to think it is silly to not name a starter.

“Listen, we can quit with the coaching dramatics,” Mason said. “When it’s all said and done they’re 5-0. They’re a good football team with lots of talent. They’re playing extremely well and my hat’s off to Kirby because he’s done a great job.”

Then again, it isn’t like Mason is immune to the gamesmanship of withholding information to reporters. In the same news conference, he was asked to comment on the injury statuses of cornerbacks Tre Herndon and Bryce Lewis, and what that meant for Taurean Ferguson.

Mason, like Smart with his quarterbacks, wasn’t exactly the most revealing when it came to his answer.

“I’ll figure that out on Saturday,” Mason said. “I know those guys are practicing so you know I wasn’t going to tell you right now, even if you really wanted to know. I’m not going to tell you that. But what I will say is those guys are practicing and I like the rotation right now.”

While football coaches try to keep certain information from each other, Smart said it’s more important, at least to him, to keep everything centering his team in-house.

“I don’t get into much of that stuff,” Smart said. “I just try to make our team better and the guys who can practice and the guys who can play, we want to get those guys better.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2017 at 7:37 PM with the headline "While Smart won’t announce starting QB, Mason says he isn’t ‘fooled’."