From The Sports Desk

Yesterday, Saturday, was a good day for the Sports Desk. We got to watch college football all day, and more importantly, our teams won, particularly the University of Georgia Bulldogs, who decisively beat Vanderbilt, 30-6, up in Nashville.  The game was more one-sided than the score suggests, with Georgia gaining over twice as many total yards as Vandy and almost three times as many rushing yards.  

There's no strategic reason at this point for Georgia to run up the score on its opponents - the Bulldogs are already ranked No. 3 in the nation, and won't move up in the standings despite the score unless and until either No. 1 Clemson or No. 2 Alabama drops a game.

Meanwhile, Atlanta's Georgia State University, who went 2-10 last season, traveled on up to Knoxville for their season opener and beat Tennessee 38-30. No one's expecting greatness from Georgia State, despite the victory, but many people were expecting more from Tennessee.  The recurring claim that "Tennessee's back," is probably going to have to wait at least another year before finally, if ever, becoming true.

Atlanta's Georgia Tech wasn't so lucky though, but then they had to open their season at No. 1 Clemson.  Naturally, Tech lost (52-14) and No.  2 Alabama won their opener against Duke, 42-3.  So the three top-ranked teams all won their games and should retain their rankings going into Week 2.

No. 16 Auburn had an exciting game, coming from behind to win with a last-minute touchdown against No. 11 Oregon.  To be honest, the Auburn-Oregon game was a lot more exciting than the Georgia-Vandy game, and the Sports Desk was glad to see the SEC prevail in an SEC-vs-PAC 12 contest. Georgia plays Auburn on Nov. 16, so we'll wish the Tigers well for now, but don't expect our largess to last for long.

But anyway, all that's just news and scores - you probably already know as much if you even glanced at the newsfeed on whatever device you use to feed you the news.  What interested The Sports Desk yesterday, and what we want to talk about today, is the long-term karma from the 2017 Georgia-Appalachian State game.

Two years ago, Georgia opened their season with a home game against the App. State Mountaineers.  Halfway through the first quarter, on Georgia's third possession of the game, starting quarterback Jacob Eason was hit out of bounds while scrambling on a second-and-15 play. He sprained a knee on the play and had to leave the game.  It was a blatantly dirty hit by the Mountaineers, but we should thank them instead of curse them (who's to say what's good and what's bad?), because Jake Fromm had to take over at quarterback.  Fromm and the Dogs won the game, and then again the next week against Notre Dame, and Fromm went on to become the starting QB for Georgia.  He took the team to the College Football Championship game that year, losing to Alabama in OT (but we don't want to talk about that).  But if it weren't for that dirty hit by the Mountaineers during Game 1 in 2017, Fromm may never have gotten a start and Georgia may not have gone on to enjoy their current success.  

But that's just background - we're not writing this to relive two-year-old sport memories.  What interests us - and is our point here - is that Jacob Eason is a fine quarterback, despite losing the starting position to the talented Jake Fromm.   In fact, Eason is so good that instead of merely warming the bench for the rest of his collegiate career watching Fromm play from the sidelines, Eason instead transferred to the University of Washington where he won the starting spot for the Huskies.  NCAA rules prohibited Eason from playing there last year, but yesterday he got his first start at QB for Washington and led the No. 13 Huskies to a win, 47-14, over Eastern Washington, passing for 349 yards and 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions or sacks.  

So, to follow the chain of events, Washington's success with Eason would not have occurred unless Fromm took over at Georgia, which would not have happened without Appalachian State.  So the Washington Huskies should also be thankful to the late-hitting Mountaineers.

But with Eason taking over the starting spot at Washington, Huskies quarterback Colson Yankoff had no choice but to transfer elsewhere in turn.  He went to UCLA, but didn't play in yesterday's loss to Cincinnati.  However, Bruins' QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson had a disappointing 8 completions for 26 attempts, threw two interceptions, was sacked twice, and lost 20 yards rushing, so it may just be a matter of time before Yankoff gets a chance to start and the Bruins can begin thanking Appalachian State for triggering the chain of events that led to their success as well.

But wait, there's more!  Not only did Jacob Eason leave Georgia after Jake Fromm took over, but so did the Bulldogs backup QB Justin Fields, who transferred to Ohio State, where yesterday he led the Buckeyes to a 45-21 win over Florida Atlantic.  Fields passed for 234 yards and 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions and sacks, so Ohio State is also enjoying the effects of Fromm taking over at Georgia.  

So what happened to Ohio State's QB, you're probably wondering.  Matthew Baldwin, a four-star recruit, left Ohio State to go to TCU in Fort Worth.  He didn't get a chance to play in yesterday's 39-7 win over Arkansas - Pine Bluff, but we think you're starting to see the pattern here by now.

All this pleases the Sports Desk.  Georgia starts the season with a win, Auburn upholds the honor of the SEC against a PAC 12 challenge, and ex-Georgia QBs find success in Washington and Ohio State.  And all of this can be credited to  a dirty late hit by the App. St. Mountaineers two years ago.

Who's to say what's good and what's bad?  Karma is funny that way.