Now, I'll Show You the Difference a Quarterback Makes

#. October 5, 2021

#-1. Athens, Georgia, USA

#-2. University of Georgia

#-3. Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall

#-4. Head Coach's Office

The massive success of the Georgia football program since last year had done wonders for Head Coach Kirby Smart's reputation as well.

Even on this Tuesday morning, Kirby Smart had appeared as a guest speaker at a gathering of high school coaches from across the state of Georgia, where he'd also crossed paths with head coaches from other college football programs.

"A mutiny, you say?"

"That's the word."

"But weren't they 4-1?"

"That's what I heard too. Can't say for certain."

"..."

Becoming a college football head coach meant far more than simply posting good results.

You had to show up at every regional meeting and event, and maintain a spotless public image at all times so the university could keep the donation money flowing in.

Above all, staying in the good graces of the people who held real influence on campus was essential.

That was why Kirby Smart spent a considerable chunk of every week outside the campus grounds.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Harsin isn't an SEC guy."

"Idaho, wasn't it?"

"Right. Boise State."

Just last December, the Auburn Tigers had hired Bryan Harsin as the replacement for Gus Malzahn, who had departed for Central Florida.

A former quarterback at Boise State, Bryan Harsin had launched his coaching career almost immediately after graduating, and over seven seasons at the helm from 2014 had compiled a 69-19 record.

He'd won three bowl games along the way.

His ability had earned him an offer from the Auburn president, and he'd made the move — only to find himself without support once he arrived on campus.

A significant portion of the university's power brokers simply didn't trust a head coach who hadn't come up through the SEC.

"The whole thing was rotten from the coordinator hires on down."

When a football coach lands a new job, he's invariably granted the authority to build his own staff.

You receive the approved budget from the school first, then go about finding the right people to fit it.

But before the ink on Bryan Harsin's contract had even dried, he was handed a budget far smaller than what he'd originally been promised, and the staff he'd planned was no longer possible.

The seats that should have gone to his own people were filled instead by SEC veterans, and those men refused to acknowledge a coach from outside their conference.

The SEC has never been entirely free of good-old-boy gatekeeping, but to this degree? The fair conclusion was that the university's power players were pulling strings behind the scenes.

"He probably hasn't been briefed on today's event either."

"The school didn't tell him...?"

"That's my read, yes. A man used to life in Boise probably has no idea just how cutthroat SEC recruiting can be."

"...That's adding insult to injury for him."

"Exactly."

Having changed clothes inside while talking with the other coaches, Kirby Smart returned in comfortable athletic wear instead of his suit.

He settled into his chair, cracked open a water bottle, moistened a throat gone dry from all the talking, and steered the conversation somewhere else entirely.

"I can't get a read on that kid at all."

"Ask Moi about him, then."

"Moi? Why Moi?"

"I hear the two of them are going fishing together this Sunday."

"What?"

"Heard it straight from the horse's mouth this morning."

Kirby Smart was still wrestling with his thoughts about Travis Hunter, who had visited the campus and Sanford Stadium just last Saturday.

Travis Hunter's home was barely a thirty-minute drive from here, and the kid had said he'd dreamed of playing at Sanford since he was little.

This was, after all, a 2022 recruiting class with a rare shortage of prospects rated a perfect 5-Star.

And if a player born and raised right down the road said his childhood dream was to play at Sanford?

As far as recruiting went, it was effectively over.

All that remained was the head coach's decision.

Unlike Bryan Harsin, starved of support from his own university, Kirby Smart held absolute authority over everything related to the football team.

He needed no one's permission to bring in a blue-chip prospect.

He could stock the entire class with 4-Stars and nobody would say a word.

Because he had already molded countless 3-Star and 4-Star players into the core of the team — and sent them on to the NFL.

Above all, winning the fierce battle to land Dwayne Moi Stone had been the decisive moment that announced Kirby Smart's abilities to the entire campus, results to match.

And yet, even now, Kirby Smart still hadn't found full conviction about Travis Hunter.

Not talent. Ego.

That was precisely the problem.

Something with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the potential to wreck a team.

Striped bass fishing, of all things...

Having seen Travis Hunter's comment on Dwayne Moi Stone's Instagram post, Kirby Smart decided to exercise a little more patience.

#. October 7, 2021

#-1. Athens, Georgia, USA

#-2. University of Georgia

#-3. Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall

#-4. Players' Lounge

"My head's been killing me."

"Heh heh heh."

"No, seriously. That could be my future we're talking about."

"Fair point."

"It hit me that the only good things about being the No. 01 pick are draft day and the monthly paycheck stubs."

"Bullshit. What a rich-guy problem."

What am I talking about?

Trevor Lawrence.

After morning practice, while chatting with friends in the players' lounge, the conversation had drifted naturally toward the NFL, and the topic had landed on Trevor Lawrence, the man everyone couldn't stop talking about lately.

Why was he the talk of the town?

Certainly not for a good reason.

Having started as the quarterback in each of the season's first four weeks, Trevor Lawrence was — to borrow the words of 'SBNation' — a beautiful disaster, plain and simple.

Completion percentage: a measly 57.0% (81 of 142).

Touchdowns (5) were outnumbered by interceptions (7).

His passer rating over that stretch sat at a dismal 66.4 — the kind of number that demanded he hand back his starting job immediately.

In a word: total meltdown.

And yet.

"That could happen to whatever team I end up on too, you know."

"Where do you think you're going?"

"No idea."

For now, you could safely assume that any team that drafted a quarterback in the early rounds this year wasn't going to pick me.

Jacksonville.

The Jets.

San Francisco.

Chicago.

New England was out.

Drafting a quarterback in the first round meant you intended to start or develop that player, so the odds of that same team turning around and drafting me two years later were slim to none.

And if one of those teams happened to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft? Chances were high they'd simply trade it away.

They'd deal with whichever team offered an attractive asset capable of replacing the player they wanted, or sat high enough in the order to take him.

You might ask — why not just draft the guy first overall, then? But that's the move of an amateur GM.

Once your pick slides lower, the signing bonus shrinks with it, so there's no reason to spend the top pick on a player you could grab later.

That's the single biggest reason draft pick trades happen so frequently in the NFL — with a hard cap system in place and no exceptions allowed, every last dollar counts.

Anyway.

By that logic, any team drafting a quarterback in the first round again next year definitely wasn't taking me.

That said, next year was known to be a lean year for quarterbacks, so outside of a team or two, nobody would be drafting one at all.

"So tell me, Tray. What are you wearing to the draft?"

"Hmm. Haven't thought about it yet."

"Whatever it is, make sure it kills."

"Kuk kuk kuk. Will do."

The frequency of draft talk had definitely climbed since last year.

Next year it would be even higher, wouldn't it?

"YES!! YEEES!!!"

"Who's that?"

"Brock, probably."

"You can tell from the voice alone?"

"The guy's been following me around nonstop lately. Thank god Darnell's taken responsibility for him these days, honestly."

"Why does that sound like you're hurt about it?"

"You got that from looking at my face?"

"...Absolutely not."

"Hell Yeah."

Trevor aside, the friends from our Georgia squad who'd made the jump to the NFL this year were, for the most part, doing remarkably well.

Eric Stokes (CB), drafted by Green Bay, had shoved his competition aside and seized a starting job within three weeks, riding a wave of momentum after two games of absolutely insane play.

Tyson Campbell (CB), too, had offered fans some small comfort with his rock-solid defense precisely during the stretch when Trevor Lawrence was disappointing them.

Azeez (LB), off to the Giants, had already racked up 2 sacks playing rotational linebacker, and Trey (C) was getting plenty of playing time for a sixth-round pick.

Ben, Kitty, and Deon were in somewhat murkier situations, but we still touched base now and then to send encouragement.

Among the guys already in the NFL, and among the ones standing in front of me right now, there would definitely be some who thought making it to the pros meant the journey was over.

But that's a mistake.

The draft isn't a finish line. It's a starting point.

Whether or not a player understood that going into his rookie season was what split pro careers into polar opposites.

I'd watched, one after another, far too many friends act like arrogant superstars the moment they were drafted — only to plummet straight into the abyss the very next year.

I wanted better for my friends.

"Moi. Moi!"

"Huh? Oh?"

"Let's go play some video games."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

Somehow it was already Thursday.

Our opponent this coming Saturday was the Auburn Tigers — the matchup known as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry.

#. October 9, 2021

#-1. Auburn, Alabama, USA

#-2. Auburn University

#-3. Jordan-Hare Stadium

I'd felt it on our last road trip to Vanderbilt, and I felt it again — Georgia's popularity in the college football world was unquestionably national in scale.

Nearly 38,000 of the 88,043 seats in the stadium were filled with Georgia fans. No matter how close the two schools were geographically, drawing close to forty thousand fans on the road was a rare sight.

This wasn't a neutral site.

This was Auburn's home, plain and simple.

"Coach."

"Oh, hey! Let's have another great one today."

"Yes, Sir."

After walking over and hugging Coach, I put on my headset and took my place on the sideline.

Auburn had won the coin toss and would start with the ball.

Click.

"Hard to say. Auburn runs the ball well."

"Exactly."

The first day I'd wondered whether Zamir might not be grinding as hard this year was the day the Preseason All-SEC teams were announced.

The SEC teams, voted on by the head coaches and team captains, were released to coincide with SEC Media Days — and in a season with no Najee Harris at running back, Zamir had been relegated to the Second Team.

I fully expected him to sulk and blow up about it, but what he'd actually said back then was, "Not bad."

If you argued that Second Team was still second in the entire SEC, he'd have a point — but as recently as last January, the consensus had Zamir as the undisputed No. 02 back in the country.

So naturally, this year was supposed to be his First Team year. Instead, he'd been bumped down to Second by that guy over there.

Tank Bigsby.

His real name was Cartavious Bigsby, but the way this workhorse back pounded forward like an actual tank had turned the nickname into something more real than his own name.

Jake's kickoff went up, and Auburn opted for a fair catch.

"They've watched our film, Coach. Last game."

Our defensive showing against Vanderbilt and then Arkansas the week before had aired on college football TV programming all week long.

Especially after watching Arkansas fail to cross midfield's own 20-yard line in the first quarter last week, insiders had gone so far as to say, "The most shocking and frightening defense I have ever seen."

A D-line of three toying with five or six O-linemen, and the linebackers operating in perfect sync with them.

With Azeez gone, the outside linebacker spot had looked like a massive hole to fill — but Nakobe, who'd stepped into it, was rampaging like even more of a beast, and Quay and Channing were, quite literally, soul-bound partners.

And you'd think the flanks and deep zones must be soft to compensate? Not even close.

"Ah, shame. The defense looked good there."

"The pass was good too. First throw of the game — the feel is solid."

"Good plays deserve credit, Coach."

Auburn's starting quarterback this year was once again Bo Nix.

A middling SEC quarterback.

Depending on how that kid handled our defense today, Auburn fans' hope-torture session would either stretch on or collapse on the spot.

Why call it hope torture?

Because we were going to win anyway.

Auburn kept leaning on Bigsby's legs, play after play.

They'd even gone for it on fourth down twice.

Instead of punting on fourth down, they'd trusted Tank Bigsby's power to grind out a single yard — chomp, chomp, one bite at a time.

Both fourth-down gambles had succeeded, and before anyone realized it, they'd marched to our 31-yard line.

And even after that, Tank Bigsby kept churning.

He's good, I'll give him that.

He was everything we'd hoped to see from Zamir.

Raw, overwhelming power simply bulling forward.

That's what I wanted from our own running back too.

9 & Goal.

Only three games had passed since we last conceded points, and now the scoreboard was staring us in the face.

And then—

Whoosh—

That was close.

If Bo Nix's pass had been even a shade more accurate, we'd have conceded points beyond any argument.

"That last play design was nice, Coach."

"Yes, Sir."

I stayed in constant communication with Coach Cortez, watching the next play unfold.

Given Bo Nix's experience against us last year, his composure would already be crumbling over the mistake he'd just made.

Was he the same as then — or had he grown?

If he hadn't developed, he'd fail to produce a result this time as well; if he had, we'd need to stay on edge for the rest of the game.

Seeing him stand there for a long moment with both hands planted on his helmet after the missed pass, though, the former looked far more likely.

Same situation again — 9 & Second.

Shotgun formation.

The snap came, and it looked like the ball was heading to Tank Bigsby — but he'd clearly been thinking RPO.

Except—

"FUMBLE—!!!"

It turned into the kind of moment that had every man on the field pointing and screaming in one voice.

The exchange with Tank Bigsby hadn't been secured cleanly, and the ball slipped straight out of Bo Nix's hand.

Travon Walker pounced on the opening and ambushed Bo Nix from behind, and while the quarterback lost his chance to recover the ball he'd knocked loose, Kelee Ringo swooped in and scooped it up.

The return didn't go far — he was down at the 22-yard line — but our defense had done its job properly yet again.

"What did I tell you!! What did I SAY!!"

"YEAH—!!!"

The defensive unit came storming toward the sideline, radiating so much raw energy that it lifted the entire team's mood.

While they celebrated, I received the next call from Coach Monken at a rapid pace, then a few final words just for me.

"You don't want to be called the No. 01 team — you want to be called the No. 01 offense, don't you?"

"Absolutely not, Coach."

"Then go out there and show them."

"Yes, Sir."

Inside our building right now, offense and defense were fueling each other in the best possible synergy.

Helmet in hand, I left Coach Monken and walked toward the huddle where the offense was waiting, and a few steps further on, I turned to face my boys and slowly pulled the helmet on.

Then I roared.

"Six straight weeks!! The first scoring drive is OURS!!"

"LET'S GO—!!!"

"COME ON!!!"

The offense was surging back at me with heat every bit as fierce.

Now — let me show you the difference a quarterback makes.