ATHENS, Ga. -- Kirby Smart has a great problem on his hands.
Actually, it really isn't even a problem. It's a perfect situation for Georgia's second-year head coach.
Smart, who just hauled in what's rated as a stellar recruiting class, now has two elite quarterbacks on campus. Jacob Eason almost immediately became his starter last season after signing from the 2016 class, and now pro-style passer Jake Fromm is making his presence known.
"I'm excited about the competition because it's going to push Jacob," Smart said. "It already is. [Fromm], he gets off the plane from the Army All-American game and he wants every [Georgia] receiver's cell phone number and he wants to go throw with them. If they're not out there throwing, he wants to ask them why they're not. That's the best thing for Jacob right now."
That's exactly what Smart and Eason need in 2017. Confidence breeds excellence.
“It’s something I knew I was getting into when I signed my name,” Fromm said on Georgia's national signing day live stream. “I’m excited about it. It’s going to make me better. It’s going to make him better. It’s going to make the university better.”
Let's get really real for a second. We all know that after Eason was named the starter in Week 2 last season, the competition at quarterback was over. Former starter Greyson Lambert was demoted to emergency QB. Even though Lambert saved Georgia's hideous win over Nicholls in Eason's debut Week 2 start, Smart knew that he was rolling with the country's top-rated high school quarterback until he absolutely couldn't.
Smart's patience with Eason was the right move. But the problems he had on the field continued throughout the season because he -- and his coaches -- knew his spot was safe. Eason was learning how to cope with SEC speed and learning how to properly identify opposing defenses, but he had the luxury of doing it on his own time and at his own speed. Without someone truly pushing him in practice, Eason continued to make the same freshman mistakes he was making early in the year.
Again, he was young and impressionable. It happens. But now, Eason has a reason to jump deeper into offensive coordinator Jim Chaney's playbook. He has a reason to maybe throw a couple more passes during offseason 7-on-7 drills. Maybe he pushes out that extra rep in the gym.
There are many in Athens who believe Fromm is the real deal, and he arrived with the outlook that he could take Eason's job from him. And Smart knew that trait as he recruited Fromm to Athens. Smart knew who Fromm was when he was the defensive coordinator at Alabama and Fromm was committed to the Crimson Tide.
Go back even further, and you'll see that Smart knew who Fromm was when he played for Warner Robins' baseball team in the 2011 Little League World Series.
"Everybody was talking about him then, talking about that team,” Smart said. “I remember as a ninth-grader, he was throwing there, everybody was talking about him, talking about the talent he had. Of course, at that time I had no idea how things would transpire.”
So far, things have transpired well for Smart and Georgia because Fromm is in Athens and Eason is now looking over his shoulder. Smart said he knew the moment he took the job at Georgia that he'd be recruiting Fromm to come with him. And he did that while knowing that Eason was priority No. 1 in the 2016 class.
It's all worked out swimmingly, and having both together and already working with each other is how Smart puts the quarterback icing on his red and black cake.
“That’s big for us. We wanted [competition] at every position, especially at quarterback," Smart said. "Everybody’s driven to be great, but they’re really driven when they have a person behind them. Having Jake there is really going to push Jacob -- it’s already doing it.”
