Mark Richt is no stranger to alternating quarterbacks at Georgia. While he hasn't employed the strategy in recent history – Aaron Murray's presence helped dissuade it – Richt isn't saying no to using two QBs in the near future.
Senior Hutson Mason took over for Murray last year after Murray suffered a knee injury. Mason entered 2014 as the starting QB and has kept the job. However, he hasn't been dynamic; through the first four games he hasn't thrown for over 200 yards.
Richt was asked Tuesday if he planned to use backup quarterbacks Brice Ramsey or Faton Bauta against Vanderbilt. Given that Georgia is a heavy favorite at home and Vanderbilt is the worst team in the SEC, it'd be a prime opportunity to give either QB a chance to play in a conference game.
Early in Richt's tenure at Georgia he played both QB David Greene and QB D.J. Shockley. He didn't downplay the benefits of using two QBs Tuesday.
"I've done it over the years," Richt said when speaking of the two QB system. "I was used to doing it at Florida State, then when I got here, we did it with Shock [Shockley] because that's kind of what I was used to doing. I was kind of used to it but I don't think [offensive coordinator Mike Bobo] felt quite as strong so we kind of got away from it. Still, it's not a bad thing to do."
Saturday against Tennessee, Mason threw his first two interceptions of the season. While he's only thrown for 566 yards all season, Georgia's successful running attack with Todd Gurley and others means Mason doesn't have to carry the load of the offense. And it also means Richt can afford to look at options for the future at QB if he so chooses.
Mason said he's been putting too much pressure on himself and vows to start attacking defenses more. If he's successful, he can make his head coach think twice about truing a new QB for a series or two.
"Again, I think some of my problem in the past has just been maybe putting too much pressure on myself to try and get everything right, and that's slowed down my ability to play, mentally," Mason said. "As a quarterback you always want to be the guy who always gets the protection right, gets the check right, know 100 percent what the defense is doing," Mason said. "Sometimes when the defense is doing a good job disguising it takes a little while instead of just playing off your basic rules of playing freely. I think that's what I've kind of done a bad job of in the past, putting too much pressure on myself to getting it 100 percent right instead of attacking what I see, so that's what I'm going to fix."
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of
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