Guerry Clegg: Lambert getting the nod not really surprising
It was three months ago that Greyson Lambert announced he would transfer from Virginia to Georgia for his final two years of eligibility. He had lost the starting quarterback job at Virginia to Matt Johns. At the time, it seemed Lambert would rather spend two seasons a backup playing in his home state with a chance to win a national championship rather than nine hours away from his parents in Jesup, Ga., signalling in plays for a bad ACC team.
Lambert opened preseason practice a month ago behind Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta, and would have been fourth had Jacob Park not withdrawn from the competition and left Georgia.
But Lambert quickly made it a three-way competition again.
"It was a battle that didn't define itself, nobody really pulled away, and I can't sit here and say that Greyson just pulled away from the pack," said Georgia head coach Mark Richt.
That itself should have been revealing. This is Ramsey's third year in the program, Bauta's fourth. Yet they both lost out to the new guy.
Quarterback is a position of leadership as much as execution. The fact that Richt and new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer would reach out to Lambert after the other three had gone through spring practice suggests they were never sold on any of them.
Maybe they weren't sold that Ramsey and Bauta had mastered the offense. Or maybe they weren't sold that either had won the support of the team.
Richt has repeatedly said otherwise, even maintaining that stance after naming Lambert the starter.
"They were all doing well in our opinion, but he got the nod," Richt said.
It's understandable that Richt would say that. Lambert could falter or get hurt. Then he'd have to turn back to Ramsey or Bauta. But the longer the competition went without Ramsey or Bauta asserting himself as the offensive leader, the more evident it was, at least in hindsight, that Lambert was passing them.
There's a lot to like about Lambert. He's 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds. His arm might not be as strong as Ramsey's, but it's strong enough. He might not be as mobile as Bauta, but he's nimble enough to run for 49 yards against BYU, including a 37-yarder on a read-option.
Yeah, there are some causes for concern. He had more interceptions (11) than touchdown passes (10) in his nine starts for the Cavaliers. He lost his starting job in spring practice to Johns, whose arm is not as strong.
So a guy who can't hold his starting job for a bad ACC team has been entrusted to run the offense of a Top 10 team in the toughest conference in college football.
No, not exactly your typical career path.
But Virginia didn't have Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and Keith Marshall to hand or toss the ball to, or Malcolm Mitchell to go deep or Jeb Blazevich over the middle. He wasn't playing behind an offensive line stocked with veteran talent that will soon play in the NFL.
So much of running a Richt offense is making calls at the time of scrimmage. The fact that Lambert has already learned Schottenheimer's playbook speaks to his intelligence and his work habits. So does the fact that he graduated from Virginia -- a school Georgia has modeled itself after academically -- in three years.
Chances are, Lambert won't be the second coming of Aaron Murray or Matthew Stafford or even David Greene. But he doesn't have to. All he has to do is make enough plays to win. And get the ball into the hands of Chubb and Michel.
-- Guerry Clegg is an independent correspondent. You can write to him at sports@ledger-enquirer.com
This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: Lambert getting the nod not really surprising ."