The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Transfer QB lambert is UGA's starter
Junior transfer player from Virginia edges Ramsey and Bauta — for now.
ATHENS — Georgia’s starting quarterback competition has a winner and it’s an unexpected one: Greyson Lambert, the junior transfer from Virginia.
Lambert will start in Saturday’s season opener against Louisiana-Monroe, coach Mark Richt announced after Monday’s practice.
Brice Ramsey, the presumed favorite who finished last year as the No. 2 quarterback, will share second-team snaps with Faton Bauta this week in practice.
“There may be other or others who get in the game. But right now the thing that I know that he’ll start the game,”
Lambert LouisianaMonroe at Georgia, noon Saturday, SEC TV, 750, 95.5
Richt said of Lambert. “Very, very close competition. Still being contested in my mind. But at this point we felt it would be wise to name a starter and get him ready to play in this ballgame. … We’ll start playing ball that way and see how it goes.”
The quarterbacks were notified prior to Monday’s practice and the team was told after practice, just before Richt announced it to the media. Richt said he and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer were “pretty sure” on the choice Saturday, but gave it a couple days before finalizing it.
The fact Richt named a starter at all was a surprise. The competition had seemed to be coming to a split-time arrangement for the first game.
“If I was a betting man, I would probably say I didn’t think there was going be one named up until the game,” senior offensive tackle John Theus. “That’s how things normally are around here. So coach Richt announced it today. We didn’t know it was coming.”
It’s quite a turn of fortune for the 6-foot-5 Lambert, who transferred from Virginia this summer after dropping to No. 2 on the Cavaliers’ depth chart. He started nine games for Virginia last season as a sophomore, passing for 10 touchdowns with 11 interceptions.
“Anything that happened at Virginia had nothing to do with the decision for him to start,” Richt said. “It might have had something to do with the decision to have him come on our campus because that’s what we had on him to go by. We didn’t invite him blindly. We watched his film and felt like he could function and do the things that we’re going to ask the quarterback to do here at Georgia. But we didn’t say: ‘He’s gonna come in and be our starter’ by any means.”
The competition isn’t over yet. Richt said that the coaches are “very interested” in another quarterback getting first-half snaps on Saturday. He didn’t specify which one, but Ramsey has consistently shared reps in practice with Lambert.
“I think they all can get us in the right plays. They can all get us in the right protections. I think they can all function extremely well and help us win,” Richt said. “That’s what made it extremely tough.”
Ramsey was long considered the favorite after finishing last year as the No. 2 quarterback behind Hutson Mason. He is regarded as having the strongest arm the program has seen since Matthew Stafford, and he had some game experience last season, finishing the Belk Bowl after Mason suffered a head injury.
But there were also concerns about Ramsey’s decision-making. During the spring, he was unable to step ahead of Bauta, who is more mobile but has a weaker arm. Then when Lambert became available, Richt and Schottenheimer jumped at the chance to bring him in to compete.