ATHENS — Jim Chaney is a funny guy. Most people already knew that about Georgia’s new offensive coordinator, but it was on full display Saturday morning as he addressed the media for the first time since being hired by the Bulldogs last December.

Chaney left Pitt to accept Kirby Smart’s invitation to coach quarterbacks and run the offense and was meeting with quarterback prospect Jacob Eason the same day.

“Yeah, I was flying down on a plane, threw the Pitt shirt off, put the Georgia shirt on and met with him right away,” Chaney before the Bulldogs’ open practice on Saturday. “That’s the world we live in. To everybody else that’s craziness. For us, it isn’t. You are who you are.”

Obviously that meeting went well. Eason, the No. 1-rated pro-style quarterback in the country, signed with the Bulldogs and enrolled in January. And now he’s embroiled in a quarterback competition with a pair of veterans in Greyson Lambert and Bryce Ramsey.

By Chaney’s account, it’s a close and intense battle.

“The competition is hot; it’s alive,” Chaney said before the Bulldogs’ open practice Saturday. “This is a little unique in that I think we have three kids that can go out on the field and perform for us. Routinely for me, I have not had three guys who could go out there and play.”

Now at the end of the first week of preseason camp, Chaney said he’d like to see one of the quarterbacks separate from the pack. But that hasn’t happened yet.

I got a little bit upset with them and said, ‘somebody needs to start emerging a little bit here, you know, showing a little bit more,'” Chaney shared. “As the volume comes in, it gets a little bit tougher on some of them. Some can handle a little more volume than others. But that doesn’t make you the best player and the one we’re going to choose.”

Chaney said that he is taking into account what Georgia’s tailback situation is going to be in his evaluation of the quarterbacks, but indicated that it is not a major factor. At the end of the day, it will be based on “who moves the team down the field and scores points.”

“Everybody has their opinion on the quarterbacks,” Chaney said. “It’s a polarizing position. You get the victory you get told how great you are. You get the loss and you get told how bad you are. That kind of comes with it.”