Chaney discusses decision to stick with Fromm over Eason

If it's not broken, don't fix it.

That was the thinking behind Georgia's decision to stick with Jake Fromm at quarterback once he was forced into game action. Early in the season opener against Appalachian State, Jacob Eason suffered a knee injury and was forced to exit the game. While Eason was officially named the 2017 starter in July, the injury forced him to sit out a few weeks. This allowed Fromm to have an early crack at the starting job.

Fromm went on to impress the coaching staff in the first month of the season, which included a 20-19 win at Notre Dame. When Eason was healthy, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said he didn't want to disturb what was developing on offense.

"I don’t think there was ever a premeditated moment," Chaney said, speaking to the media for the first time since August at the L.A. Hotel Downtown. "We went out, Jacob wasn’t healthy yet, and we beat Notre Dame. We came back home and won another ball game (against Samford). You could see us starting to click and the ball starting to move down the field with relative ease. It was a good formula at that time. We never predetermined anything but you couldn’t make that change at the time, when Jacob got healthy. It wouldn’t have been the right thing at the time."

The decision has paid off as Fromm has engineered Georgia to a 12-1 record and a spot in this year's Rose Bowl, which also serves as a semifinal for the College Football Playoff. Eason, who started 12 of Georgia's 13 games as a freshman in 2016, has been a backup since returning from the injury.

During spring practice, buzz was abound about Fromm impressing the coaching staff in the meeting room. And then his performance on the field continued to grow. That, in turn, helped spark Eason to improve his performance, which led to the coaches deciding to go with him in the season opener against Appalachian State. Chaney said Eason did everything the coaches asked of him during to keep the starting job.

Chaney revealed, however, that when Eason was decided on as the preseason starter, there wasn't a "significant" gap between the two quarterbacks. But as the season transpired, Chaney said Fromm earned the trust of his teammates as he proved he could command an offense. It certainly wasn't an easy decision for anyone when Fromm was told he would continue to start.

"(Fromm's) such a humble young man and his appreciation for the role that he stepped into and he had a great appreciation for the struggles Jacob was going through," Chaney said. "The team could feel that and sense that. Just humility had as much to do with anything. But he's a talented guy and after a while the kids were kind of, 'Hey, we're alright.' I think when we went up and beat Notre Dame up there, it was a tight ball game, I called a real conservative game that day. That day, his first start up there, I was probably a little more conservative than I probably should have been but it worked and we won. But after we left that place I feel like there was a feeling that, alright, we got a chance to play with about anybody right now."

As for Eason, he accepted the backup role in stride, even if it came due to circumstances outside of his control. Fromm said that Eason has handled the situation well throughout the season.

"Jacob, he's been an incredible teammate," Fromm said. "I couldn't ask anyone to be a better teammate than he has been to me. He's my roommate right now at the hotel and things couldn't be better between us."

This season, Fromm has completed 63 percent of his passes for 2,173 yards, 21 touchdowns and five interceptions.

With each game, the coaches received validation for the decision to stick with Fromm once he was given the opportunity to lead the Georgia offense.

"He got on the field and performed," Chaney said. "It’s always a performance-based business. He went out on the field and performed at a really high level. When you’re doing that at that spot and you’re moving the field, it’s hard to make a change at that spot."

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Chaney discusses decision to stick with Fromm over Eason."