Confidence never wanes for Georgia QB Fromm
LOS ANGELES – Jake Fromm likes to talk trash, and it did not matter to the true freshman that he was the new guy in town or that he had yet to establish himself within the Georgia football program. He believes in being who you are every day, and for him that meant challenging his opponent physically, mentally and verbally.
So during 7-on-7 drills in Athens last summer, he opened his mouth and started yakking. His target: the veteran, and very established, Georgia defense.
“I wanted them to give me their best,” Jake explained Thursday, as a sly smile spread across his face. “So I had to talk to them a little more.”
His dad, Emerson, was not surprised to hear this.
“When Jake was about 10, he learned he could level the playing field by talking,” Emerson told USA TODAY. “In pingpong and pool, even though I’m older and more skilled and would obviously beat him, he would start to say stuff to me like, ‘Gosh, Dad, that’s a tough shot’ or, ‘Man, I don’t know, Dad, that’s a lot of green right there.’ And then, you start thinking about it and he’s already won.
“He’s just always been more confident than other people. He doesn’t know any better.”
That moxie, plus a composure that belies his age, is how Fromm finds himself quarterback of a College Football Playoff semifinal team.
On Monday, Georgia and Oklahoma, two of college football’s blue bloods, will play in the Rose Bowl semifinal in Pasadena (5 p.m. ET, ESPN), with the winner moving on to the national championship game in Atlanta on Jan. 8.
The Bulldogs’ success is often credited to a salty defense (Georgia allows its opponents 270.9 yards of offense) and a dynamic running back duo (Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who average a combined 169.4 yards per game).
But the play of Fromm, who has thrown for 2,173 yards and 21 touchdowns, has been crucial, too. Also unexpected.
Fromm is a Georgia boy through and through; he said of his family, “They’ve been Dawgs ever since I was born.”
Many found it puzzling when the four-star signal caller flipped from Alabama to Georgia in March 2016 because the Bulldogs already had their quarterback of the future in Jacob Eason, a consensus 2016 five-star from Seattle.
But Eason sprained his left knee in Georgia’s opener against Appalachian State, and in trotted the rookie.
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said he wouldn’t classify the separation between Eason (the starter) and Fromm (the backup) as “significant” at the conclusion of fall camp, but “it was such that we didn’t feel comfortable in the other direction (Fromm) at the beginning of the Appalachian State game.”
Michel, a senior, said none of the upperclassmen had a problem with Fromm being so vocal because “he did it the right way.”
“It wasn’t like some five-star quarterback trying to be arrogant, thinking they could run the show,” Michel said. “He was coming from the competitive aspect of, ‘I’m trying to get you all better, and you need to get me better.’ ”
Fromm is expecting 15-20 family members to make the trip from Warner Robins to Pasadena. There are times, he said, that he’d guess being the starting quarterback at Georgia is “bigger for them than it is for me.”
“It’s hard to believe what we’re about to do,” Emerson said. “I mean, we’re talking about starting against Notre Dame Week 2 and then, here we are at the Rose Bowl. For a Southern kid, that doesn’t happen.”
Monday night against the Sooners, in one of the most iconic venues in college football, Fromm plans to lean on two other Southern kids.
“I’m going to play behind Nick and Sony,” Fromm said. “I’ll let their pads do the trash talking for me.”