Mr. CFB: Georgia's Smart Says Bennett "One Of The Least Respected Good Players In The Country"
Atlanta—Here are two stories that speak volumes about Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, the starting quarterback for the defending national champions:
**--In late October I was at the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. At this point the Bulldogs are 7-0.
I’m tailgating with friends when a Georgia fan I didn’t know walked up and began to speak.
“Tony, you KNOW that we can’t win the national championship with Stetson Bennett as our quarterback.”
All Bennett did from that point forward was lead Georgia to the College Football Playoff, where he was the MVP in the semifinals against Michigan and in the national championship game, a 33-18 win over Alabama.
**--Fast forward to June when I was speaking to an alumni group from Georgia’s Terry College of Business. Early in the Q&A came this:
“Even if Stetson Bennett stays healthy do you think he’ll be the starting quarterback for the entire season?”
What, you might ask at this point, does Stetson Bennett IV have to do to quiet the doubters?
“Stetson is one of the least respected good players in the country,” said Georgia head coach Kirby Smart during Wednesday’s SEC Media Days. ”People continue to underrate him.
“And that’s okay with me.”
Bennett’s story has become the stuff of college football legend. A 2017 walk-on from the small South Georgia town of Blackshear (Smart said Bennett is actually from the even-smaller town of Nahunta) he was fourth on the depth chart early in his career. He transferred to Jones County Junior College in Mississippi hoping to get a chance to play. He led Jones County to the Junior College national championship game.
But he returned to Georgia in 2019 as Jake Fromm’s backup. In 2020 he got a chance to start when D’Wan Mathis did not play well. But USC transfer JT Daniels eventually got the job.
He started the 2021 season as the backup to Daniels. But Daniels got hurt in the second game against UAB and Bennett became the starter. And the rest, as they say, is history.
With Bennett having proven all his critics wrong, there was a school of thought that he would leave Georgia and enter the NFL Draft. Chances are his draft stock would never be higher.
There was another school of thought that he would play his final season somewhere else. Bennett said he never seriously considered either option.
“You play the game to play the game,” said Bennett when he met with the SEC Media. “And you play the game to win and compete against the best players.
“I am secure enough. I can look in the mirror. I wouldn’t have gotten drafted high last year.”
Bennett decided that his best option was to come back to school and see if he could lead Georgia to another national championship.
Why does he feel that way? Because he led the Bulldogs to 14 wins and a national championship against the best competition in college football.
“This is the best football conference in the country,” said Bennett. “But if we take care of business, we take care of business here.
“I think it is the biggest honor in the world to be here with a “G” on the side of my helmet, my name on the badge, looking across at my brothers and knowing we are playing for the University of Georgia—the state of Georgia.
“It really wasn’t that tough of a decision.”
With Bennett clearly entrenched as the starter, Georgia has one of the deepest quarterback rooms in the country. Daniels has moved on to West Virginia. Carson Beck, a four-star player from Jacksonville, Fla., was recruited by just about everybody. Georgia has two five-star quarterbacks—redshirt freshman Brock Vandagriff from Bogart, Ga., just a short ride from Athens—and true freshman Gunner Stockton.
“Yeah, if you’re a good coach you can’t go into the season without thinking you have two or three guys who can come in and play,” said Smart. “Especially in our conference,”
After watching him struggle but ultimately prove his critics wrong, his teammates have a lot of confidence in Bennett.
“He understands and knows the system,” said Smart. “They know he can get them the ball. He can throw the ball vertically down the field. He can throw deep comebacks. He can scramble and make plays with his feet. I think they (his teammates) value that.”
When the media votes at the end of the week, Alabama is expected to be the choice to repeat as SEC champions. The reality is that Georgia lost 15 players to the NFL draft and five of those were defensive players that went in the first round.
Georgia’s defense led the nation by giving up only 10.2 points per game. You can’t lose five first-round draft choices and hope to repeat those kinds of numbers.
But the fact is that Georgia has recruited at a very high level for some time now. And Smart is not buying the idea that talent—or a lack of it—is going to impact this season.
“My expectation for our defense is to be fast and physical,” he said. “Look, if you recruit really good players who are fast and physical you’ll play really good defense.”
“We have plenty of talent. What we lack right now is experience.”
Smart was asked to describe this team in one word:
“Hungry. There’s a hunger in this group,” said Smart. “A lot of guys want to prove they can replace the other guy. They don’t want to BE the other guy. They want to be the NEXT guy.”
Georgia opens the 2022 season against Oregon (Coached by former Georgia DC Dan Lanning) on Sept. 3 in Atlanta. The Bulldogs’ first SEC game is Sept. 17 at South Carolina.
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