Jake Fromm’s story keeps getting twisted a bit.

This isn’t the tale of how Fromm went from true freshman backup to the leader of the SEC champions. Nor is it how he led the Bulldogs past Baker Mayfield in the Rose Bowl. Instead, as Fromm’s dad Emerson explains, the story trips up when it comes to how Fromm arrived at Georgia in the first place. Specifically, in regards to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart’s role in recruiting Fromm to Alabama.

And yes, you read that correctly. Fromm, whose childhood bedroom was decorated in Bulldog red from age three onward, initially committed to the Crimson Tide as a junior in high school. Smart, of course, was Alabama’s defensive coordinator at the time. But despite the narrative, Smart wasn’t actually Fromm’s recruiter for the Tide.

“The story keeps getting spun that Kirby was the recruiter at Alabama, and he wasn’t,” Emerson Fromm told 247Sports. “Kirby ended up being our buddy because the recruiting process at Alabama is just different.”

The tale of Fromm’s journey from Alabama commit to facing the Crimson Tide in the title game is something the family revisited in the hours that followed the Rose Bowl. It’s a history that’s rather simple – Fromm always wanted to play at Georgia – and also a bit complicated considering the pieces involved.

But before we get there, consider Emerson Fromm’s words on Alabama’s recruiting structure.

“Nick Saban wants it to be about Alabama and Coach Saban,” Emerson Fromm said. “He doesn’t want you to really deal with the coordinators, even though (Lane) Kiffin was the recruiter. As soon as Kiffin kind of put his blessing on Jake, we didn’t talk to Kiffin a whole lot. It was to the point where sometimes you’d might be in the indoor and see Kiffin, and he might go the other way. I’m serious. It’s just bizarre. We got kind of close with Kirby because we didn’t have anybody to talk to. Kirby is from Georgia and it’s just easy to relate. That’s why he’s blowing everybody up on the recruiting end because he’s just a very personable person.”

“(Kirby) made it very easy when he left Alabama. It’s just like a no-brainer.”

So why didn’t Fromm just commit to Georgia in the first place?

Well, because he didn’t have an offer from Mark Richt and the previous Bulldogs staff. Fromm, the No. 44 overall player and the No. 3 overall pro-style passer in the 2017 cycle per the 247Sports Composite, never drew a ton of interest from his home state school.

“Richt just didn’t want him,” Emerson Fromm said. “It’s just that simple. They had another fellow in mind (Bailey Hockman) and that’s the direction they wanted to go. That was an eye-opener for Jake in life. Sometimes, you just don’t get what you want. You just have to make the best of what you got.”

As for why that was, Emerson can only speculate.

Fromm was a record-setting passer at Houston County High School. But the Bulldogs had landed five-star passer Jacob Eason the year before. To Emerson, who rooted for Richt throughout his tenure at Georgia, it meant the Bulldogs didn’t want to risk going after a second highly-touted passer in two years.

“I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I don’t think they were confident recruiters. If they had a five-star ahead of you, the odds are the following year it’d be a three-star and it’d go back and forth. I don’t think they had the confidence. Their mindset was, there’s no way that we’re getting back-to-back-to-back five-stars and they just didn’t think they could get (Jake).

“At the end of the day, who knows? Maybe they just thought the other guy was better? I think they were wrong. But, at the same time, that’s my opinion. But it looks to me they were pretty obviously wrong.”

The lack of a Georgia offer was softened a bit by Alabama’s interest.

When the Crimson Tide offered in April of 2015, they’d won two of the previous four national championships. A fact that made the lack of a Bulldog offer a bit easier to take. Fromm genuinely liked Alabama.

***

Smart wasn’t Alabama’s lead recruiter for Fromm, but a relationship did quickly develop between the two Georgia natives.

Emerson Fromm said Saban’s mindset when it came to relationships with assistant coaches was, “Your coordinator may or may not be here when you get here, so don’t worry about it.” Saban wanted players to come to Alabama because “it’s Alabama” and “Saban.”

But when the Fromms visited, they gravitated toward Smart.

They talked about hunting and where they were from. The conversation flowed easily.

So yes, when Georgia hired Smart that relationship carried over. Smart called Fromm within 24 hours of being named Georgia's head coach. Fromm was Smart’s first offer, and son and father took the call while duck hunting.

"He said, ‘Look, I’m not trying to take you from Nick and Alabama, but we’re going to make sure you’re our first offer,'” Emerson Fromm recalled. “'We just want to make sure you have a home if this is where you want to be.’”

It took nearly three months of deliberation, but in the end the choice was easy for Fromm.

The kid whose pool table at home is Georgia red and adjacent to a Herschel Walker helmet wanted to play college football in Athens. That he could do it for Smart made Fromm’s decision that much easier.

“You don’t really have a relationship with Saban in the sense that we have with Kirby,” Emerson Fromm said. “Kirby is kind of like our home boy versus Saban as a very professional, I’m a coach, you’re the player relationship. It’s just a different type of atmosphere. Not in a bad way. The guy’s won that many championships and done all the stuff that he’s done, so what do you expect? … At Georgia, every coach under the sun is going to talk to you if they know you’re in the building. They’re going to come talk to you. They’ll go out of your way to find you. Alabama is just more professional. It’s just more business. We’re not here to kiss your butt, you’re here to play and produce for the University of Alabama. It was just a different atmosphere. Let’s just put it like that.

“So when Kirby left, it was easy. Kirby was more talking to us like we were hunting buddies or something. And Jake always wanted to go to Georgia. It was just too easy, too simple.” Alabama replaced Fromm in the 2017 class with five-star Tua Tagovailoa.

Fromm with his family being presented the Dream Champion Award

***

In the hours after Georgia’s Rose Bowl win, the Fromms reflected on what a crazy ride 2017 — and technically 2018 — has been. Fromm is a confident young passer, but the family never would have imagined this type of run as a true freshman.

“If you wrote the script, I never would have believed it,” Emerson Fromm said. “We always had anticipated that he would play, just in limited spot duty, blowout games and getting a rep or two here or there, being content with that. Then Eason is done the next (season) and goes off to the pros, and then Jake is playing.

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“But for all this? You couldn’t ask for a better script really.”

That script, in the end, will also include Alabama one way or the other.

There is zero animosity between Alabama and Fromm. Fromm wrestled with the decision to flip. And Saban had nothing but complimentary things to say about Fromm when asked about him earlier this week.

“We thought he was a fantastic player, very instinctive, very smart, makes great choices and decisions – always puts his team in the best play that they can be in,” Saban said. “I think he does a lot of check-with-me's, which for a freshman quarterback probably demonstrates his knowledge of the game and preparation and intelligence. He always was a fantastic passer and remains that way.”

In the end, the decision for Fromm proved to be the right one. And that's borne out more quickly than anyone could've imagined.

Playing at Georgia was his dream. Carrying the Bulldogs to the national championship holds the same weight that piloting the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl would have. Fromm may have been committed to Alabama, but he was always a Georgia kid.

“If he played at Alabama it would just be a professional affiliation. It would be business,” Emerson Fromm said. “Georgia, it’s definitely business, but there’s a lot of emotion in there because he’s had his heart in it.

“He gets the best of both worlds going to Georgia.”

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