Georgia's Jacob Eason still getting first-team reps in Tuesday's rotation

Georgia tried its best to conceal the quarterback order.

During Tuesday's practice, Greyson Lambert, Brice Ramsey and Jacob Eason all gave hand-offs to running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel in play polish drills. Lambert and Eason were first up in the five-quarterback rotation in individual passing work, which made it an uneven rotation since Sam Vaughn and Parker McLeod were working in, too.  

But if anything can be taken away from the limited viewing period, it was the order in which the quarterbacks went in when handing the ball off to the running backs.

While the running backs rotated in and took hand-offs from each quarterback, the quarterback order stayed the same. First up was Eason. Lambert and Ramsey, in that order, were the two quarterbacks to follow behind him.

It’s unknown if this order continued through the duration of Tuesday’s practice when Georgia went into team drills.

This isn’t to say Eason is now in the lead for the starting quarterback job. But it could be a sign Georgia will continue to give him a closer look. On Saturday, head coach Kirby Smart said Eason received more reps with the first and second teams last week to catch him up since he didn’t take those snaps during the spring.

This by no means indicates Eason is the leader for the job. By what Smart said Saturday, there will continue to be a rotation as Georgia works on fundamental work. Game plan preparation for North Carolina isn’t expected to begin until next week.

Eason, a freshman from Lake Stevens, Washington, is still competing for the starting job. No matter if he wins it, he’s still likely to see some playing time early on this season.

“I think he’s grown as a player,” Smart said. “Just the cumulative effect of the reps, doesn’t matter what offense you’re in, the fact that the other two have been in a college system for three and four years, it puts them at an advantage from the standpoint of dropping back and making decisions and seeing coverages. So we are trying to catch him up to speed and get him some reps to find out what he can do.

“How he’s responded, I think he’s done a good job of responding to it. He’s had an opportunity to make more plays and also make more mistakes. And he’s done both. He’s got to continue to improve there.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Georgia's Jacob Eason still getting first-team reps in Tuesday's rotation."