ATHENS -- Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett told the world that he’ll be back with the Bulldogs for one more season.
Bennett shared the news on his Instagram page Wednesday evening, within an hour of quarterback JT Daniels’ announcement that he was entering the transfer portal. The infamous user of a flip phone, Bennett’s Instagram page is seldom utilized.
Bennett posted only one photo slide on his page, and it provided no detailed explanations. All it said was “One More Year,” “Let’s Roll” and provided a link to the @DGDfund Twitter page, a charitable beneficiary he created with four other Georgia teammates.
His mother, Denise Beasley Bennett, provided the only comment from the family.
“I am super happy for Stet,” she said in a text message. “Great decision.”
Bennett’s return will mean a rare sixth season of eligibility of him and some continuity for Georgia’s offense next season. As a fifth-year senior this past season, he led the Bulldogs to the national championship. A Blackshear native, Bennett took over as Georgia’s starting quarterback in the fifth game of the season and led the Bulldogs the rest of the way. He started 12 games overall, including the last 11. He finished fourth in the nation in pass efficiency rating at 176.7 while completing 64.5% of his passes for 2,862 yards and 29 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.
Bennett’s best work came in the 33-18 win over Alabama in the College Football Playoff national championship game on Jan. 10 in Indianapolis. He passed for 224 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a 20-0 fourth-quarter comeback. It was Georgia’s first national championship in 41 years.
Credit: Instagram
Credit: Instagram
In three seasons with Georgia, Bennett has passed for 4,301 yards with 39 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The Bulldogs are 15-3 in the games he started for them.
Since winning most valuable offensive player awards in the Orange Bowl and national championship games, Bennett has picked up endorsement deals with Raising Cane’s and Great Clips franchises in Athens.
The son of alums who both earned pharmacy degrees from Georgia, Bennett first came to UGA as a preferred walk-on in 2017. He redshirted that season and impressed coaches while running the Bulldogs’ scout team.
Bennett transferred to Jones College, a junior college in Mississippi, for the 2018 season. He accounted for 1,988 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading Jones to a 10-2 record and the conference championship game. On the eve of signing with Louisiana-Lafayette, Bennett received and accepted coach Kirby Smart’s scholarship offer to return to Georgia.
With no promises of ever playing, Bennett backed up Jake Fromm during the 2019 season. In 2020, he ended up relieving starter D’Wan Mathis in the opener against Arkansas, rallying the Bulldogs to a come-from-behind win. He’d start the next five games before getting injured in a loss to Florida. Daniels took over in the next game and started the last four games of the season.
Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com
Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com
Daniels opened the 2021 season as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, and Bennett was third-string. But after Daniels aggravated a back-muscle injury in the season-opening win against Clemson, Bennett beat out fellow reserve Carson Beck for the right to start against Alabama-Birmingham in the second game. Bennett tied a Georgia record by throwing five touchdown passes in the first half and supplanted Beck as the No. 2 quarterback. Daniels played through the injury in lopsided wins over South Carolina and Vanderbilt. But when the injury persisted, Daniels was shut down in the season’s fifth week.
A crossroad came when Daniels was medically cleared to play before the Florida game. After two weeks of in-practice competition leading into the Oct. 30 game in Jacksonville, offensive coordinator Todd Monken chose to go with Bennett. The Bulldogs won 34-7 and Bennett remained the starter the rest of the way.
“I probably undervalued his skill set,” Monken explained before the Orange Bowl in late December. “We’ve tried to elevate guys that have talent on our roster, and we do that at every position. Some guys just combat that and fight and scratch and continue to play well and try to prove you wrong, and that’s what Stetson Bennett did.
“It wasn’t really anything JT did. It was more along the lines of what Stetson did. We thought he gave us the best chance to win, his mobility, those things, in the run game and the pass game, when things break down. We believe give us the best chance to win.”
Finishing 14-1 with the national championship trophy in hand, there’s no more argument about that.
The question now is how it will affect Georgia’s quarterback position going forward. With Daniels’ decision to enter the transfer portal, the Bulldogs are left with four scholarship quarterbacks for next season. In addition to Bennett, they are rising sophomore Carson Beck, redshirt freshman Brock Vandagriff and freshman Gunner Stockton. Currently, Georgia is considered one of the frontrunners for 5-star quarterback prospect Arch Manning of New Orleans.
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