ATHENS, Ga. -- Kirby Smart never has felt like Justin Fields came to Georgia with a lot to learn.
Smart felt the same way after Fields, a 5-star dual threat quarterback out of Harrison High School, made his debut between the hedges at Sanford Stadium at Georgia's G-Day. He was the quarterback for the black team, who won 21-13 on Saturday.
"Sloppy at times," Smart said on the quarterback and receiver play. "Both quarterback’s receivers had some drops. We’re trying to gain confidence, we’re trying to get guys through those drops, through those."
Fields completed his first three throws before quieting down a bit and taking sacks from Monty Rice, Keyon Brown, Devonte Wyatt and David Marshall in the second quarter. However, there's a good chance he could have used his legs to escape from a lot of the pressure he faced if he were live and not down by touch.
He came to life in the third quarter on a pass to Jeremiah Holloman, who broke free for a 36-yard completion. Prather Hudson scored from 2-yards out on the next play. On the next drive for the black team, he would find redshirt freshman Matt Landers for a 15-yard touchdown.
"I never felt like he was behind in the offense on day one. He’s done such a good job coming in and learning," Smart said.
But the third-year head coach, who has managed a quarterback battle every single season he's led the Bulldogs, said not to read too much into the hype and compared it to the battle between Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm. Eason ultimately won the starting job after last summer, but an injury in the opening game of the season opened the door for Fromm who had a record-breaking season and led Georgia to the national title game.
"You all were sitting here last year saying a lot of the things you're saying right now. Because [Fromm] was throwing it against the two-defense and was throwing it pretty good. And Jacob Eason was going against the one-defense, which at that time was really good."
There were similarities as Jake Fromm struggled with accuracy but also had D'Andre Walker and Jonathan Ledbetter in his face throughout the game. An early pass sailed on him while he was under pressure and Deandre Backer had a 32-yard pick-six to open the scoring.
Fromm threw a second interception in the third quarter, that time to William Poole who was playing both ways.
"Some ill-advised throws. You want them back as soon as you let go of the ball," Fromm said, his spirits high after the game.
Fromm said the offense gashed the defense throughout spring practice, specifically the defensive backs. Fromm nearly had a deep touchdown pass in the first quarter to Riley Ridley who had Tyrique McGhee beat, but it was dropped as Ridley hit the ground. He had a minor head injury.
Ridley returned, and in the fourth quarter finally came up with one of the deep balls, a 57-yard heave, Fromm's only touchdown of the game. He completed 19-of-38 attempts for 200 yards.
"Fromm’s just going to be Fromm. We respect him here," Ridley said, taking more of the blame for Fromm's struggles. "As a receiver, we have to make more catches. We have to complete those passes."
Most will tell you there's no quarterback battle. Fromm led the Bulldogs through too much.
But a game like that on Saturday will only let the speculation fester as the summer months heat up and everyone waits for fall and what's to come.
