OU’s example
Georgia QB Jake Fromm is trying to become the first freshman since OU’s Jamelle Holieway to win the national championship.
LOS ANGELES — Jake Fromm never had heard of Jamelle Holieway.
“I don’t think so,” Fromm said. “Who’s that?”
Forgive the Georgia quarterback. It’s not like Baker Mayfield knows who quarterbacked Georgia to the 1980 national title (Buck Belue). Plus, Fromm is only 19 years old, while Holieway is 50. 1985 is long ago.
But a quick history lesson — Holieway remains the only true freshman to quarterback a national championship team in major-college football — brought Fromm up to speed.
“Really? Hope I can add my name to the list,” Fromm said.
Two more wins and Fromm can do just that, but he’ll have to go through the Sooners to do it, in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Fromm has little else in common with Holieway, who quarterbacked the Sooners to the national title 32 years ago. Fromm is a dropback passer from Warner-Robins, Georgia, who likes to hunt and says gosh a lot. Holieway was a wishbone optioneer from Greater LA’s hardscrabble side who wore fur coats and rarely said gosh.
But the Bulldogs talk about Fromm the way Sooners talked about Holieway. Precocious. Confident. Ready. That’s what Holieway was coming out of Banning High School. That’s what Fromm was coming out of Houston County High School.
When Georgia quarterback Jacob Eason suffered a sprained knee ligament in the season opener against Appalachian State, with a trip to Notre Dame a week away, the Bulldogs turned to Fromm, who had arrived on campus in January. Georgia patched together a seasondefining, 20-19 victory in South Bend and hasn’t looked back.
When Troy Aikman suffered a broken leg four games into OU’s 1985 season, the Sooners turned to Holieway, who had been on campus two months. Barry Switzer reinstalled the traditional wishbone on the fly, and the Sooners never looked back.
“He’s never been the reason, after the Notre Dame game, we’ve kept a package small,” Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said Thursday at a Rose Bowl news conference. “He’s never been that reason. Usually your freshman quarterbacks are the reason you don’t do this or you don’t do that. He has not been. The game of football’s easy for him.”
In other words, just like Holieway, Fromm
hasn’t played like a freshman. Holieway’s command of the wishbone was stunning at a school that was accustomed to seasoned quarterbacks taking over. Fromm’s command of a veteran, proud team has been equally impressive.
“Even when Jacob got hurt and he came in the huddle, first thing he (Fromm) said was, ‘I love you all boys, let's go get this W,’” said Georgia offensive tackle Isaiah Wynn. “I never got that sense of him being nervous or being scared.”
Fromm’s freshman
moments have been few. He mentions a couple of bad plays against Notre Dame and Tennessee. Wynn and tailback Nick Chubb had to pop Fromm for not sliding in one game. Fromm was a little too mother-henish in telling Wynn to be prepared for a cornerback blitz in another game. “I just turned around and said, ‘Yeah, I know, I got this,’” Wynn said. “And that was about the only time. Afterwards he came up to me he said, ‘Yeah, I know, you got it.’ So after that we're good. I mean, something that small, it just shows the type of quarterback he is. He tries to see everything, he tries to do everything, but that's just the type of guy he is. I respect him.”
And really, that’s all you can ask from a freshman quarterback. Win the respect of his teammates.
“He never made the moment too big, he never made it about him,” said tailback Sony Michel. “It was all about the team and he's done a great job. There was never no moment that we had to bring him back to telling him he's a freshman.”
Fromm said it’s been a long time since he felt like a freshman. He’s already made 12 starts. That’s a full season. He’s played in South Bend and Auburn and Neyland Stadium and the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville and the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. The Rose Bowl is
the biggest stage, but it’s not like he’s jumping on it straight from WarnerRobins.
“When I get the most nervous is when I know I don't prepare, and for me this year and this season, I think I've prepared more than any freshman quarterback or any quarterback out there in the country could have prepared,” Fromm said.
He plays and speaks with confidence. That’s the way Holieway was 32 years ago.