If Georgia didn’t have a quarterback controversy before, it does now.
It is now firmly up in the air whether Stetson Bennett, who started the last four games for the Bulldogs, will start a fifth one next Saturday when UGA visits Missouri. The redshirt junior Blackshear was both injured and ineffective in Georgia’s 44-28 loss to No. 8 Florida in Jacksonville.
If Bennett doesn’t, all indications are that responsibility will fall to D’Wan Mathis. The redshirt freshman first filled in for an injured Bennett, then finished the game as the Bulldogs tried to mount a comeback in the second half.
In the end, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound Mathis wasn’t much more effective than Bennett, who played the second and third quarters with a sprained AC joint in his right (throwing) shoulder. Combined, the two quarterbacks were 9-of-29 for 112 yards passing with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
“I thought Stetson did some good things early and then he took a hit,” Smart said. “He had a (sprained) shoulder. He wanted to keep playing … but I didn’t think he was real. He was timid with it. He didn’t have great accuracy. So, we decided to go with D’Wan. And I thought D’Wan did some good things. He made some mistakes but he did some good things and he still gained experience.”
What seems certain at this point is JT Daniels won’t be Georgia’s next starting quarterback. Smart shed a little light on that situation when asked to expound on the decision to not play Daniels or even give him significant looks with the No. 1 offense in practice every.
“Right now, we feel like the other two give us a better shot because they’ve gotten more of a body of work,” Smart said Saturday. “I don’t think necessarily that he has anything with his knee. He doesn’t wear a knee brace anymore. He reps. He takes reps with the scouts and moves around and gives us a really good look. I think he’s still growing and getting better in the offense. But, obviously, right now with where we are, we feel like those two guys give us our best shot.”
The reality is, Georgia’s offense has issues beyond quarterback play. The Bulldogs finished with only 277 yards offense, 165 of that coming on the ground. They continue to play short-handed at receiver. Sophomore star George Pickens missed his second straight game with what was thought to be a minor shoulder injury. Then his replacement, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, suffered a broken ankle at the end of a 36-yard touchdown catch to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead. Georgia lost starting slotback Dominick Blaylock in preseason camp and redshirt sophomore Tommy to an off-field accident.
All that said, explosive plays were there for the taking Saturday night against the Gators. Both Bennett and Mathis overthrew open receivers on deep routes, and they also were victimized by a few drops.
“I feel like everyone is preparing well,” said redshirt sophomore Kearis Jackson, who led the Bulldogs with 3 catches for 48 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown catch from Mathis. “We just have to go out there and execute what the coaches give us and make the best of each opportunity we get.”
As for which player should be QB1 going forward, Jackson wasn’t about the touch that one.
“I’ll leave the quarterback questions to Coach Smart,” he said.
Smart got plenty of them after Saturday night’s loss. He didn’t seem to mind answering them.
As for why he made the quarterback change when he did: "Well, (it was) based on his injury and how he was feeling. Know what I mean? Stetson did some good things early in the game when he had his starting X receiver, Marcus Rosemy, and Jermaine Burton out there. He was doing some good things on third down. He stepped up in the pocket. He missed a couple throws. He had one scramble where I thought he could hit one of our guys on the sideline and he missed him. (But) I don’t know if he missed them because he missed them or if he missed them because his shoulder was injured.
“But at that point, we felt like D’Wan was going to give us a chance to do some different things. We felt like we were going to find out what D’Wan could do because Stetson wasn’t 100 percent, and D’Wan is our second quarterback, so that’s who we went with.”
As for what Georgia might need to do to create more explosiveness on offense, Smart said: "If you don’t feel good about throwing the ball vertically, you better figure out what you can do, you know what I mean? Like starting the game in a 32 personnel (three tight ends, two backs) and opening the game with a truck sweep. There’re things there that you have to be able to do to complement who we are right now.
“I can’t wish myself into an explosive offense. We have to work ourselves into that. We’ve got to execute our offense and complete more passes, be more accurate. We’ve got to get guys open, but when we do we’ve got to hit them.”
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