It's been 729 days since Jacob Eason last stepped out onto a football field to start a competitive game. It was September 2nd, and the Georgia Bulldogs were playing the Appalachian State Mountaineers. He started out a little slow, going 1-3 for 4 yards, but then suffered a knee sprain that would alter the trajectory of his college football career.
In stepped Jake Fromm, who led the Bulldogs to the National Championship Game, where they lost to Alabama in overtime. Eason decided to leave Georgia and move back to Washington, his home state.
The Lake Stevens native was in front of plenty of friends and family, as well as Washington fans wondering what a couple of years of ring rust would look like for Eason, as he started UW's season-opener against Eastern Washington on Saturday afternoon. All the junior did was throw for 349 yards - a UW record for most yards in a starting debut, beating out Taylor Barton's record of 316 yards at UCLA in 2001. He also threw for four touchdowns, a personal best.
All things considered, it was a pretty solid first outing in the Purple and Gold for Eason.
If you missed it the first time, here's the post-game audio of Eason talking to the media, where he was asked about his play, how comfortable he felt getting back out on the field in a competitive situation, his favorite plays, the play of backup center Matteo Mele, who came in for Nick Harris after Harris went down with a leg injury in the first quarter, what he was planning to do to celebrate after the game, and a lot more.
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