ATLANTA — Jacob Eason, the Lake Stevens (Washington) High School quarterback, announced Tuesday he will attend UGA next year.
The nation's No 1. high school quarterback has been committed to the University of Georgia since July 2014, but when Mark Richt was fired, the Eason family wanted to explore a few other options. Kirby Smart was announced as the new head coach at Georgia and Smart worked quickly to contact Eason and hired offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, known for his work developing quarterbacks.
In the weeks since Richt's departure, Eason visited the Universities of Florida and Washington, in addition to his visit to UGA.
Eason said he made his final decision about choosing to stick with his UGA commitment in two places. First, he felt the tug of still wanting to play for UGA and all the friends he had made in the potential 2016 recruiting class in Athens.
“The visit was reassuring and then coming back home to talk with my parents and my family it was good to have them on board with my decision and them fully backing me up," Eason told DawgNation on Tuesday. "Georgia is the best place for me and I couldn’t be more excited.”
He said the decision between UGA and Florida was “close” and then rattled off the things in the end that made him stay with the commitment.
"There was a big comfort feeling there being committed to Georgia for 18 months, but it was a lot of things," Eason said. "The recruits that I know who are going there is a big thing. Then just meeting with coach Smart and (new UGA offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney just reassured everything. Those are great guys and great coaches and really fit for the jobs. I am just really excited."
Eason made it clear just how important that Chaney hire was.
“If I went down there and left and there still wasn’t an OC then I would probably still be scrambling right now,” Eason said.
Who will he go after now to commit to UGA? The first names that came to mind were 5-star athlete Mecole Hardman, Jr. and 5-star tight end Isaac Nauta. Those guys are also rated No. 1 in the nation this year at their respective positions.
“There’s a lot of guys,” Eason said. “Mecole and Isaac and Demetris Robertson and Nate Craig. There’s a whole bunch of guys I am going to try to get to go to Georgia.”
His loyalty to UGA is also worth noting on a day when he was also named as the 2015 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year.
“I always just kind of knew I was still committed to Georgia through the tough times and hard times and whatnot,” Eason said. “I didn’t want to break that commitment just because a couple of coaches got fired. I was really going to wait it out and see what was going on and it all worked out in the end.”
Eason plans to enroll in school in January.
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