I doubt very seriously that the UGA staff even knows for sure who will start this year because they haven't seen a single live practice with Lambert yet. However, he's a very valuable addition to our QB corps regardless of who wins the job for the following reasons:
- He has meaningful game experience: That doesn't mean he's better than Ramsey or Bauta. But until now, all three of the QBs on our roster were highly inexperienced. Lambert has 9 starts and has played in 16 games. Plus, it wasn't all pushover ACC competition. He's played against Oregon, UCLA, and BYU, plus Florida State, Louisville, Ga Tech, Va Tech, UNC, and Miami. Even if Lambert doesn't win the starting job, there is value in having an experienced guy in our "bullpen" that we can turn to if things get rough, rather than handing the ball from one inexperienced guy to another.
- Lambert has 2 years of eligibility remaining: Even if our eventual starter turns out to be merely a bridge to Eason, it helps if that bridge could last for 2 years rather than 1. Maybe Eason will prove to be the best of the bunch the moment he sets foot on campus, but with either Lambert or Ramsey, we at least have the option of bringing Eason along slowly rather than being forced to put the whole team on his shoulders as a true freshman.
- He's a big kid: Lambert is 6'5" and 235lbs which makes him the biggest QB on our roster (bigger than any QB I can recall at UGA in fact). That doesn't mean he's better than Ramsey or Bauta, but he certainly has NFL QB size.
- His 2014 season as a starter was better than the numbers suggest: To put things in context, UVA was 2-10 in 2013 and was among the worst offensive teams in the country, averaging just over 19 points per game, and just 16.5 points in ACC games. With Lambert as their starter in 2014 (and Matt Johns sharing time as their primary backup), UVA improved to 5-7, beat Louisville, Pitt, and Miami, and improved their scoring average by 32%.
It's also worth noting that even though he battled Matt Johns for playing time all year, and even though the prior year starter, David Watford, was still on the roster, Lambert held the starting job all season, even reclaiming it after missing 3 games due to an ankle injury. He had better numbers than either Johns (2014) or Watford (2013) and beat out both guys in the spring to claim the starting job. He also had to overcome a lousy OL and the loss of their best WR. Plus, their running game was the 2nd worst in the ACC (better than only Wake Forest) which put additional pressure on the QBs. It's also worth noting that their HC is a defensive guy, not an offensive coach, and the prior year they had lost their OC/QB coach to the NFL. Although not spectacular, you could argue the QB play of Lambert (and Johns) was the lone bright spot on an otherwise bad football team.
- Lambert was voted team captain last spring and hyped as an emerging star: That's no small issue as he was only a RS freshman with no starts and limited game experience at the time. He won a 3-way QB battle which included the prior year's starter, was named team captain, and named to a 13-player leadership council. His teammates must have seen something in him. Plus, the local press started touting Lambert as the reason UVA might have a breakthrough season in 2014. Turns out they improved by 3 wins but didn't set the world on fire. But was that because Lambert wasn't as good as advertised, or because QB was the only aspect of the team that showed any meaningful improvement?
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