Realistic Expectations for Jacob Eason at Georgia in 2016

The last few weeks have been tense for Georgia fans.

Former head coach Mark Richt was fired, Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart was hired to take his place and, through all of the coaching upheaval, 5-star pro-style quarterback commit Jacob Eason wavered.

The Lake Stevens, Washington, native flirted with Richt at Miami and made an official visit to Florida following the end of the season.

In the end, he kept true to his verbal and financial aid commitment to Georgia, and re-committed to the Bulldogs at a ceremony at Lake Stevens Senior High School, according to Kipp Adams of 247Sports.

Smart, who can mention Eason by name prior to national signing day because of the financial aid agreement Eason signed with Georgia earlier this year, celebrated the news on Twitter.

Now it's time to calm down, relax and focus on realistic expectations for Eason with Georgia in 2016.

Whether Eason starts right out of the gate or ascends to the top spot on the depth chart ahead of Greyson Lambert once the season starts, Georgia fans need to approach his freshman campaign in the Classic City with cautious optimism.

Eason is going to make mistakes.

He's going to struggle with the speed of college football.

He's going to lose football games.

If you're expecting a true freshman to walk right into a Power Five conference and set the world on fire, your expectations are a bit too optimistic.

Even UCLA's Josh Rosen, who was one of the most college-ready prospects in recent years, struggled at times as a true freshman for a veteran-laden Bruins squad in 2015. He tossed 20 touchdowns, threw for 3,350 yards in the Pac-12, but he also had games in which he looked completely lost. He tossed three picks in a narrow victory over BYU, three more over a two-game stretch in which the Bruins lost to Arizona State and Stanford, and two more in the 40-21 loss to USC.

This was a guy who was physically and emotionally prepared for the job prior to taking his first snap.

"When things go well, or when things don't go well, he's a very determined guy," head coach Jim Mora said in August, according to Chris Foster of the Los Angeles Times. "He has emotional stability. That's one thing that is impressive about him, besides his physical talent, is his emotional makeup."

If Eason follows the same path and is the No. 1 quarterback on the depth chart from the moment toe meets leather, expect the same kind of year as Rosen had for the 2015 Bruins.

There will be flashes of the potential that has made him a 5-star prospect and one of the most highly touted pro-style passers of the 2016 recruiting cycle, but there will be prolonged struggles that any freshman goes through.

Plus, when you look at the schedule the Bulldogs face in 2016, it's not exactly built to throw a true freshman into the fire.

Georgia opens with a North Carolina team that suddenly can play defense under coordinator Gene Chizik, has to travel to Missouri and Ole Miss—two traditionally strong defenses—in late September, has a home game against a Tennessee defense that finished with the best third-down defense in the conference and is loaded with returning players the first weekend of October, and has to face nemesis Florida in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on Halloween weekend.

Those are some rather large hurdles for any team transitioning to a new staff to clear, especially with a true freshman quarterback.

Eason can be a star and will look like a star at times as a true freshman. 

But expect some hiccups along the way. 

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.