5-star QB Jacob Eason transferring from Georgia to Washington

Georgia quarterback Jacob Eason will transfer to Washington, he announced Tuesday, weeks after declaring his intention to leave the program at Georgia.

The sophomore was Georgia’s backup for almost the entire 2017 season, which ended in a National Championship loss to Alabama on Monday. Eason is a former five-star recruit and was the No. 2 quarterback prospect in the class of 2016. (The only guy rated ahead of him, Shea Patterson, recently announced a transfer from Ole Miss to Michigan.)

Eason will likely have to sit out the 2018 season under NCAA rules. He’d be eligible for the NFL draft in a year, and he’d have two years of college eligibility left.

That Eason is transferring to Washington makes sense on the surface, as he hails from Lake Stevens, not far north of Seattle. The resumption of his college eligibility should coincide with the graduation of current starter Jake Browning in one season.

That he’d transfer from Georgia made sense, too.

Eason started the year as Georgia’s top quarterback after seizing that job as a true freshman. He was injured in a Week 1 win over Appalachian State, though, and never got his job back. Four-star freshman Jake Fromm took the job and led the Dawgs to an SEC Championship, a Rose Bowl win, and within a hair of a national title.

Georgia signed the best dual-threat QB prospect in the country for 2018, in-state product Justin Fields. It’s never felt likely that Georgia would go into the year with three quarterbacks as touted as Eason, Fromm, and Fields. None of those players is the kind of talent who’s meant to be buried on a depth chart.

Eason was a Mark Richt recruit who stuck with Georgia after the Dawgs fired Richt and replaced him with Kirby Smart. Richt famously urged Eason to stick with his Georgia commitment after the coach’s firing, rather than try to bring him to Miami with him.