You, the Georgia fan, must have something to worry about. You checked that little agreement box before signing up for this plan. It is a requirement.
So, no matter that you are lapping people on the football field these days, winning the past four games, all in conference, by an average of more than 31 points, there is the requisite hint of a fret.
Some of that may land upon the head of the Bulldogs young quarterback, who, frankly, has had it pretty easy so far. What happens, you wonder, when the going gets inevitably tougher, when Jake Fromm has to make a play to avoid that first loss? Does he have the arm to deliver the Dogs? At just 19, does he have the temperament to rise where others might wilt?
Florida is next. The Gators are uncommonly average, about as watchable as C-SPAN. But it’s still Florida, a team whose sole mission is to torment its northern neighbor. Maybe it provides a glimpse of Fromm under duress.
The next three weeks – Florida, South Carolina, and most tellingly at No. 21 Auburn – have the potential to test Georgia beyond its aged and agile defense and its Medusa-headed running game. No opponent comes without risk. Ask Clemson.
But if you are at all concerned about how the quarterback might react, maybe you should spend a day poking around Fromm's hometown of Warner Robins and see how that Middle Georgia town is reacting to the success of one of its own. Hey, that sounds like it might be a story.
Maybe I’ve been brainwashed. But after doing just that and listening to the people who know Fromm best, one can’t help but come away with a strong feeling that Georgia is on to something special with this fellow.
It might be Fromm’s former offensive coordinator at Houston County High – Mike Chastain is now the head coach at Warner Robins – proclaiming that there will be no situation too large for the callow college quarterback. He always will be prepared, Chastain all but vows. He always will process situations with the kind of speed usually reserved for the silicon chip.
Or it might be something as far removed from the present as a tale from seven years ago, when Fromm’s Warner Robins Little League team was on its way to the World Series in Williamsport, Pa. “In a state tournament game in Cartersville, somebody stuck their bat out and accidentally hit the ball that Jake pitched,” began Phillip Johnson, the coach of that team. “It went between either my shortstop’s or my second baseman’s legs. The kid was devastated. Jake just turned around and said, 'Don’t worry about it, they ain’t gonna hit another one.' And they didn’t.”
“Everybody’s kid is the real deal,” Fromm’s father, Emerson, said, “but he’s a different cat, I’m telling you.”
That fourth-quarter, fourth-down bind that could determine the course of a season looms well in the future. But whatever the reason, an off-week trip south can have quite a calming effect.
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