To say Georgia’s quarterback competition is wide open heading into Saturday’s game at Missouri might not be a strong enough description.
To begin with, the Bulldogs and coach Kirby Smart aren’t sure yet what the availability will be for Stetson Bennett, who started the last four games. The 5-foot-11, 198-pound junior sustained a sprained AC joint in his right (throwing) shoulder early in the Bulldogs’ 44-28 loss to Florida Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. At best, Bennett’s ability to throw and participate in practice will be very limited the early part of the week, according to coach Kirby Smart.
“He’s day-to-day, so we don’t know,” Smart said Monday during his weekly news conference. “We’re going to find out today whether he’s going to be able to go out there and throw. So, it’s one of those deals where we don’t know how effective he’s going to be, whether he’s going to require another shot (to practice). But we’re going to get all three of those guys ready, and the one that does the best job will be ready to play.”
By “those three guys,” Smart said he meant Georgia quarterbacks D’Wan Mathis, JT Daniels and Carson Beck. Bennett’s availability, he said, will be determined later in the week.
Credit: Michael Woods
Credit: Michael Woods
Bennett missed Georgia’s last offensive series of the first quarter against the Gators while he went to the locker room and was administered a cortisone shot. He returned and played the next four offensive series, three of which ended in punts and the last with an interception.
Bennett was replaced by Mathis, the 6-6, 210-pound redshirt freshman, at the 7:06 mark of the third quarter and Mathis finished the game. Combined, the two quarterbacks were 9-of-29 passing for 112 yards and one touchdown with three interceptions.
Daniels is a 6-3, 210-pound sophomore and first-year transfer from Southern Cal. Beck is a 6-4, 225-pound freshman from Jacksonville who joined the Bulldogs as an early enrollee in January.
Only Mathis has played this season. In three appearances, including starting the season opener against Arkansas, he has completed just 40 percent of his passes for 89 yards with one TD and three interceptions. He has a QB efficiency rating of paltry 55.9 and has 17 yards on 18 rushes.
Comparatively, Bennett has completed 55.6 percent of his throws for 1,167 yards with eight TDs with six interceptions. His efficiency rating is 129.04.
As a team, Georgia has struggled mightily to throw the football. The Bulldogs head into Week 7 of the season ranked 88th in the nation in passing offense at 209.3 yards per game. So, improvement must be made regardless of Bennett’s availability.
Smart was asked directly if Bennett would start against the Tigers if he’s healthy. “That’s a great question, a great question,” he said, “only to be answered by the end of the week.”
Credit: UGA Sports
Credit: UGA Sports
The most intriguing of the possibilities is Daniels. A former 5-star recruiting prospect from Irvine, Calif., Daniels signed with Southern Cal out of Mater Dei High and started in 12 games and played 742 snaps at before a knee injury cut short his sophomore season. He completed 60.7 percent of his passes for 2,887 yards with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while playing for the Trojans.
However, since his arrival at UGA this summer, Daniels work has been limited almost entirely to the scout team. He was medically cleared the second week of the season and has traveled to every game, but has not played.
“JT spends time with our offense, he’s in all the meetings with our offense and goes in there and throws every now and then,” Smart said. “JT’s got a good arm, there’s no doubt about that. It’s one of those deals where he’s getting better and better every day with mobility. We feel good that he’s able to move around and do some things with us. Again, he’s going to get some reps with Stetson out and we’ll find out where he is.”
Likewise, Beck has gotten almost no looks the primary offensive unit. He will this week.
Receiver Kearis Jackson and cornerback Eric Stokes were asked about the quarterbacks yet unseen.
“I’m confident with whoever they put back there,” said Jackson, the Bulldogs’ leading receiver with 27 catches for 396 yards and 2 touchdowns. “It’s our job and the guys around us to build their confidence. We just have to do our job as receivers and the O-line with protecting them.”
Stokes sees Daniels almost every day when the No. 1 defense goes against the scout team.
“He’s just starting to believe in his knee, of course,” Stokes said. “He had big things going with his knee he’s finally getting the confidence he needs with his knee and all that stuff. So I’m seeing his progress as far as picking up coverages and knowledge and all that stuff. You can see him picking that up.”
But Smart emphasized that the Bulldogs haven’t closed the door on Bennett being available and still being the primary quarterback.
Regardless of who plays quarterback on Saturday, the Bulldogs have to vastly improve on passing accuracy. Against Florida, Georgia had receivers running free on deep routes several times and were unable to connect with them, most often due to overthrows.
Throwing accuracy, Smart said, will be a big part of deciding who will play against Missouri.
“We have such a small sample size on each of these guys, so it’s really tough,” Smart said. “You don’t have the spring sample-size, you don’t have the summer sample-size. All you have is fall camp and the games we’ve had. So (Bennett’s) sample-size in games is larger than the other guys. And he’s made progress as far as third-down decision making, like the (TD pass) he took the shot on. After that his accuracy started to go down a little bit and I don’t know if it was because he was just inaccurate or because of the injury. You have to think it had something to do with the injury because he wasn’t as accurate or effective after it.”
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