Yes, Jacob Eason is different. But UW coach Chris Petersen still wants you to keep ‘perspective.’

By Mike Vorel The Seattle Times • August 30, 2019 6:00 pm
Washington Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason jogs out as the University of Washington Huskies hold their third day of training camp at Husky Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019. (Bettina Hansen/Seattle Times/TNS)
Washington Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason jogs out as the University of Washington Huskies hold their third day of training camp at Husky Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019. (Bettina Hansen/Seattle Times/TNS)

By Mike Vorel

The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — Chris Petersen’s compliments came with a warning.

Yes, Jacob Eason is physically different. Yes, the junior from Georgia can throw a football on his knees from Husky Stadium to Hawaii. Yes, he has the potential to incinerate Pac-12 secondaries.

But please, pump the brakes.

Puh-lease, just let him play.

“I’m excited for him to go play,” the Huskies’ sixth-year head coach said following his team’s practice on Thursday. “I think he’s a really good player that’s going to do some awesome things. I think expectations —I know how to handle it with our team. I never know how to handle it with you guys, because they can really be detrimental when things get out of whack. I think things have gotten out of whack with him.

“He’s going to be a really great player, but he’s a college player that’s developing and figuring things out. I think we need to keep that in perspective.”

OK, so here’s some precious perspective: the 6-foot-6, 227-pound Eason has a reputation for a reason. He threw for 9,813 yards and 102 touchdowns with just 18 interceptions in a nationally renowned prep career at nearby Lake Stevens High School. He signed with Georgia in 2016 as a five-star prospect and one of the country’s top recruits. He won the starting job as a true freshman in one of college football’s premier programs, and he passed for 2,430 yards with 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions —while leading three game-winning drives —in 12 starts.

He was also replaced —Wally Pipp’d —by freshman Jake Fromm. He hasn’t started a competitive football game in nearly two years. He struggled to best sophomore Jake Haener in an open competition this offseason, and he has yet to prove that all that arm talent can translate into prolific Pac-12 success.

So yes, there are expectations. There are also unknowns.

“He can stand in there and the ball comes out quickly and he can do things different than most,” Petersen said of Eason’s strengths. “I think that’s what looks different than a lot of quarterbacks that we’ve been around. That’s what’s different about him.

“He’s played one year of college football, really. He’s had a long break. It’s going to take some time. There’s going to be mistakes made that you just have to go through and get back in the rhythm of this. It’s not practice. Games are different, and that will take a minute.”

It might not take too long on Saturday, when Washington hosts an Eastern Washington team that allowed 59 points and 470 passing yards against Washington State and quarterback Gardner Minshew last fall. But Cal and head coach Justin Wilcox loom large the following weekend.

Like Petersen said, the expectations for Eason may well be out of whack. Or maybe they’re prophetic.

We’ll all find out, starting on Saturday.

“He’s prepared and ready to go,” Petersen said. “There’s no such thing as perfection in this thing, and I just feel the expectations —they change (with success). They changed with Jake Browning, which was completely unfair. What are we talking about? He’s winning Pac-12 championships. We’re doing what we need to do. It’s a team game.

“So I just know that gets out of whack at the quarterback position, and it can (happen) quickly. People can sour quickly. That’s why we try to help these kids the best we can. It’s a process, and it’ll be a good process. But there’s some tough (things) that you have to work through.”