Jamie Newman has ‘no regrets’ from opting out of year at Georgia due to family, COVID

Before the question was finished being asked, Jamie Newman broke into a big grin.

The former Wake Forest quarterback spent a season away from football, despite transferring to Georgia and being in the midst of a battle for the starting job. He shared the news with Georgia head coach Kirby Smart in the middle of a preseason practice on Sept. 1. Newman had spent four years at Wake Forest, including playing in 12 games in 2019.

When questioned if the time away had left any rust during the week of practices at the Senior Bowl, Newman’s smile was spread across his face and he did not shy away from the question.

“Yes, there was definitely some rust, just having to get adjusted to the speed of the game,” Newman said. “Obviously, there’s some great players, some of the best players in the draft are here down in Mobile.”

After a strong first day of practice Tuesday, Newman has looked shaky and inconsistent in practices Wednesday and Thursday, throwing multiple interceptions.

Why the time away? Originally from Graham, North Carolina, Newman was one of many players who decided to step back from an nontraditional college football season that featured plenty of unknowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Newman shared Thursday that he elected to opt out of the season partially because he had a family member that was impacted by COVID-19.

“The biggest factor I would just say (was) my family,” Newman said. “My family is the one who got me to this point, and I believe in everything they say and all their input.”

He was far from alone. Many football players, both on the collegiate and professional levels, decided to step away from the season due to the ongoing pandemic. Some haven’t played since Thanksgiving 2019. Others only played four-game seasons in 2020. But to simply declare for the NFL draft before the season even begins is not all that common in a normal year and the repercussions on players’ draft stock, like Newman, are still unknown.

What will a gaping lack of game tape from a year do to a player’s prospects on the next level?

“I think one of the unique things that I’m seeing is a lot of these guys didn’t even have an offseason of training from last year to this past season,” said Carolina head coach Matt Rhule, whose Panthers staff is coaching at the Senior Bowl this week. “This will be a unique draft and you have to piece a lot of things together. This is really important for us, it was really smart by those guys to play in the game.”

In his final year at Wake Forest, Newman threw 26 touchdowns passes and 11 interceptions, while completing 60.9% of his passes. He also is a threat on the ground, rushing for 574 yards and six touchdowns on 180 attempts in 2019. But he has not played in a game since Dec. 27, 2019.

Newman acknowledged that every NFL team he has spoken with has asked about his decision to not play this past year. If he had played at Georgia, he would have had a chance to possibly start for an SEC team as a graduate transfer and put some of his skills on display at different level of college football.

“It’s just like transferring for me, it’s just like any other personal decision,” Rhule said on how he views opting out. “I just always want to know why. I want to understand why. COVID has affected everyone so differently that I’m not here to judge anyone on their reaction to it. All these big decisions these guys have made in their lives, we might ask them about and understand their decision-making for everything.”

Newman made the decision that was best for his family and has no regrets about not playing in 2020. But he still hears from Georgia fans on social media who were disappointed by him leaving the Bulldogs behind for the NFL. Newman hopes to get a chance in the NFL and points to Russell Wilson as a professional quarterback who he looks up to, especially for his abilities to be a “great leader.”

After announcing the decision to opt out, Newman has been focusing on training for the draft. His only use of his Twitter account has been to retweet a religious message Wilson posted, “ALL for YOUR GLORY JESUS!!!”

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound quarterback will likely land as a mid-to-late Day 3 pick in the draft. But for a player like Newman, the Senior Bowl game will have a bigger stage and meaning than before because of his time away. With Alabama quarterback Mac Jones dealing with an injury, he has the potential to see an increased amount of playing time.

This is one of the only times a large number of scouts and coaches will be able to see Newman and others players in person due to restrictions related to preparing for the draft.

But he believes that he can adapt to whatever is at the next level.

“Wherever I go, I’m definitely going to have to do some work, molding my game into a more pro-style offense, but this game is changing. A lot of dual-threat quarterbacks,” Newman said. “I definitely think I have a lot of (potential for) growth.”