Opinion: Georgia Should Rotate Quarterbacks Saturday
Kirby Smart is known for playing a multitude of football players. He rotates nearly a dozen guys on the front of his defense, he rotates three linebackers, he plays seven or eight defensive backs. On the offensive side of the ball, they played nine offensive linemen against Arkansas, they had six receivers catch a ball, and five running backs had a carry.
They rotate at 99.9% of the positions at the University of Georgia, why wouldn't the quarterback position be the same?
Look, this is something I have been against for most of my life following football. John Madden used to say, "If you've got two quarterbacks, you have none." I believe in that statement for the most part.
Well, Georgia has three. So I'm throwing everything out.
Georgia has 120 minutes of game time left prior to their road trip to face off against Alabama, they've got two games to figure out which quarterback — Stetson Bennett, D'Wan Mathis, or JT Daniels — gives them the most explosive version of Todd Monken's offense. And the only way to do that is to rotate them during the game.
They can only see so much during practices. Kirby Smart said so himself on Monday, saying that Mathis showed signs of the type of performance he had Saturday against Arkansas during the 25 practices leading up to the decision to start him, but he's also looked much better during practice.
They know what Stetson Bennett provides I believe. He's going to have 65-70% completion percentage in this offense, you'll take a few shots every now and then but the offense built around him will be built off timing and getting the ball out.
They know an offense built around D'Wan Mathis adds an explosive measure in the run game, paired with a massive arm that has Monken dreaming of the possibilities of the vertical passing game with Mathis at the helm.
Daniels is a mixture of both Bennett and Mathis. Though he's nowhere near the athlete that Mathis is, he can create off script, he can extend plays as can Bennett, the only difference is Daniels has special arm talent on the move. He can also dissect defenses by making quick decisions and getting the ball out quickly. And though he does not have the arm strength that Mathis has, he's comparable.
So, though it may not require a different offensive playbook for each of them, it will require a different play-calling regimen for all three of them. This type of continuity between play-caller and quarterback is something that can only be gained from in-game experience.
These guys are already under pressure, why not pressurize the position like you have the Right Tackle spot? Or the corner position? I understand there needs to be a level of continuity, but they also need to maximize the potential of the offense. I truly believe Georgia has three great options, but they need to figure out which one provides the best chance to beat Alabama, or score with Florida. And only getting game experience to the second or third guy during blowout contests is not going to be able to provide that.
And it's not just Alabama, Georgia is going to have to score with Florida this year as well. If you haven't noticed what's going on in Gainesville this offseason, you might want to wake up. They've got a quarterback that has full control of an explosive offense, in Kyle Trask with one of the best offensive weapons in college football in Kyle Pitts, and say what you want about Dan Mullen but historically his offensive score a substantial amount of points, and he's never had an offense with this much talent at his disposal as a head coach.
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