Georgia Should Trust Hutson Mason and Shy Away from 2-QB System

While the SEC West—and the state of Mississippi, in particular—has become the talk of the college football world over the last few days, there's a big game brewing back east that's littered with division title implications, defensive question marks and uncertainty at the quarterback position.

Georgia will travel to Columbia to take on the Missouri Tigers at noon ET on Saturday morning in a game that will define the landscape of the SEC East moving forward.

Rainier Ehrhardt/Associated Press

A big piece of the puzzle for the Bulldogs is quarterback Hutson Mason, who hasn't exactly picked up where record-setting signal-caller Aaron Murray left off.

Mason is averaging just 137.4 yards per game through the air—the worst mark among SEC quarterbacks who have started every game this season. His 6.8 yards per attempt are 11th in the conference among qualifying quarterbacks.

Redshirt freshman Brice Ramsey saw time last week against Vanderbilt in times other than mop-up duty, completing two of four passes for 31 yards.

According to Seth Emerson of The Macon Telegraph, head coach Mark Richt suggests this is a trend that will continue this week for the Bulldogs:

It better only be a situational rotation, because if Richt wants his team to win the East, it's going to do it with Mason running the ship and he needs to build some confidence.

When you have running back Todd Gurley to rely on, all the quarterback needs to do is be a caretaker. Through the first month-plus of the season, though, it seemed like Georgia was calling pass plays outside the hashmarks rather than in the middle of the field, where Mason has been more comfortable.

Player	Comp./Att.	Comp. %	Yds	TDs	INTs
Hutson Mason	69-of-101	68.3	687	7	3
Brice Ramsey	6-of-12	50.0	97	1	0
Faton Bauta	2-of-3	66.7	17	0	0

Playing "musical quarterbacks' won't make the problem better, it will only make it worse.

Mason needs confidence. Confidence can be gained this week in, as Richt told Logan Booker of Bulldawg Illustrated:

Mason needs to get comfortable, and the way to make him comfortable is to call plays to his strengths and let him play. He's already looking over his shoulder, and that's the last place the coaching staff should want him to be looking.

Despite the woes in the passing game, things are looking up for the Bulldogs in some departments.

Wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell (ACL, leg) played for the first time in more than a year last week and fellow receiver Justin Scott-Wesley (ACL) was on the brink of playing last week. According to Ethan Burch of Morris News Service, his absence against the Commodores surprised Richt.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Missouri isn't the team against which Georgia should rotate quarterbacks.

Shane Ray and Markus Golden—who rank first and third, respectively, in sacks per game in the SEC—get off the edge in a hurry. Even if Mason doesn't instill a ton of confidence with the staff making quick decisions, does playing a redshirt freshman on the road in a big game change that?

Nope.

Georgia needs this game and its quarterback to be a big part of it. If he's not, hopes of its third SEC East title in four years will likely disappear.

Now's not the time to get cute.

Barrett Sallee is the Lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.