POLL RESULTS: Voters expect big things from Jacob Eason

It seems Snohomish County believes the hometown kid is going to come good.

This week’s Seattle Sidelines poll asked readers to make a prediction on University of Washington quarterback Jacob Eason. Eason, a Lake Stevens High School graduate who is eligible this season after transferring from Georgia, was named the Huskies’ starting quarterback last week.

So with Washington’s season beginning Saturday when the Huskies host Eastern Washington, we asked readers to predict how many touchdown passes Eason will throw this season. Here’s how you voted:

POLL: How many touchdown passes will @LSHSVikingsFTB alum Jacob Eason throw for @UW_Football this season? Full context, including Jake Browning’s TD numbers the previous four years, here: https://t.co/4dFxiCeqBA

— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) August 26, 2019

Add it all up and 47 percent of the voters think Eason will throw 20-29 touchdowns, 23 percent predicted 30-plus, 16 percent said 10-19 and 14 percent said 0-9. With 70 percent of the voters expecting Eason to exceed 20 TD passes, there’s a firm belief that Eason, who’s Washington’s clear No. 1 after his main competition Jake Haener left the program the day after Eason was declared the starter, is going to have a prolific season.

In Eason’s one season as a starter at Georgia, when he was a freshman in 2016, he threw 16 touchdown passes. He’s three more years mature than he was in 2016, but he also has just seven pass attempts in actual games the previous two seasons.

For the record, if Eason does get into the range where most voters predicted he’ll have had one of the greatest seasons in Washington quarterback history. For those of you who voted 30-plus, that has only been accomplished twice in school history: Jake Browning tossed 43 TD passes in 2016 and Keith Price had 33 in 2011. Indeed, just breaking 20 TDs would be historic as that’s only happened eight times — the two above plus Cody Pickett in 2002 (28), Brock Huard in 1997 (25), Billy Joe Hobert in 1991 (24), Jake Locker in 2009 (21), Price again in 2013 (21) and Everett’s own Chris Chandler in 1986 (20).

Sure, college football teams are playing more games than they did in the past, and sure, passing is taking up ever higher percentages of offenses. But Eason’s predecessor, Browning, was working under modern conditions and with current Huskies coach Chris Petersen his entire four years as starter, and he only broke 20 touchdowns the one time — his other three years as starter he threw 16, 19, and 16 TDs. And this isn’t from some bum, this is from the winningest QB in Pac-12 history.

Does Eason have the talent to achieve those predicted touchdown numbers? Absolutely. Eason was named the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year as a senior in high school. He started as a true freshman in the SEC. He’s on the radar of pro scouts and could vault himself toward the top of 2020 NFL draft boards.

And if Eason is able to get into that 20-29 range for touchdown passes, it’s likely both he and the Huskies will have had a very good season.