Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman has transferred from the Demon Deacons to the University of Georgia. Newman entered the NCAA Transfer Portal back on December 31st announcing his decision publicly via his Twitter account.
For the past few days, there have been rumors and talk of Newman possibly heading to Georgia, and on Friday evening, Bulldawg Illustrated‘s Lance McCurley discovered Newman’s name being listed in the UGA student directory.
Been searching the UGA Directory for the past day, and there has been no “Jamie Newman” in their records. But in my search at 5:20pm I got this. A person by that name enrolled, but nothing has been announced officially that it’s him. pic.twitter.com/0MY8czUZvZ
— Lance McCurley (@lancemccurley) January 10, 2020
The first media outlet to publicly report Newman transferring to UGA was ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. The news comes just a couple days after the Bulldogs’ junior starting quarterback Jake Fromm announced his decision to forego the rest of his collegiate eligibility to enter the 2020 NFL Draft.
Update: And on Saturday morning, Jamie Newman officially announced that he had transferred and enrolled at the University of Georgia.
The 6-foot-4 and 230 lbs Newman signed with Wake Forest as part of their 2016 recruiting class out of Graham High School in Graham, NC. He redshirted that same year. The next season, in 2017, Newman was the backup quarterback to starter John Wolford and saw his first action with the Deacons in their season opener versus Presbyterian.
In 2018, he took over as starting quarterback after Sam Hartman suffered a broken leg in the game versus Syracuse on November 3rd. Newman would go on to start Wake Forest’s final four games helping to lead the Deacons to a 3-1 record over that stretch, including a 40-22 win in the Birmingham Bowl Game versus Memphis where he threw for 328 yards and a touchdown and rushed for another 91 yards and three scores.
He beat out Harman to be named the starter last season in 2019 as a redshirt junior and led the Deacons to an 8-4 regular-season record and a berth in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York versus Michigan State where they lost to the Spartans 27-12. On the year, Newman threw for 2,868 yards and 26 touchdowns to 11 interceptions on 220 of 361 passing. He also ran the ball 180 times for 574 yards and 6 additional touchdowns.
If you haven’t had a chance to see Jamie Newman play, here are some of his highlights at Wake Forest.
With the departure of Jake Fromm, UGA has been looking to add depth to the quarterback room for the upcoming season. Newman comes to Georgia as a graduate transfer and has one year of eligibility remaining. He will be able to play immediately and is expected to come in and compete for the start at QB for the Bulldogs.
Also competing will be rising redshirt junior Stetson Bennett, 2020 signee and early enrollee Carson Beck, and preferred walk-on Austin Kirksey, who transferred from Nevada to UGA. And I would be amiss if I did not mention Nathan Priestley, who walked-on at UGA last season and was the Dawgs third QB on the depth chart behind Fromm and Bennett. In addition to Beck, Bennett, Kirksey, and Priestly, there is also rising redshirt junior John Seter, who walked-on at UGA in 2017. Redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis could also be in contention if he is cleared to play medically.
Please note, at the time of this article D’Wan Mathis has not been cleared to play or for contact as of yet medically from having emergency brain surgery to remove a cyst last May. Mathis has been practicing and participating with the team in workouts and drills since Fall Camp 2019.