ATHENS- Sometimes the answer is right in front of you the entire time, and you didn't know it. Georgia Football coach Kirby Smart experienced that when Stetson Bennett sprung into action one late-September afternoon in Fayetteville.
If only Smart knew what was coming.
Six drives and 43 yards into the first game of a COVID-delayed year, Georgia was losing 7-2 to lowly Arkansas . Quarterback play was the issue for the No. 4 Bulldogs. Considering the trouble Smart had in the off-season at that spot the struggles on the field that day couldn't have been shocking.
To start, three-year starter Jake Fromm declared for the NFL Draft after Georgia's win in the Sugar Bowl with a year of eligibility left. Then starting Wake Forest QB Jamie Newman transferred into the program, and with that the entire college football world assumed he would be the starter for UGA. Then former starting USC QB J.T. Daniels transferred into the program. Four-star prospect Carson Beck arrived after signing and enrolling early. And the Bulldogs had two other quarterbacks on scholarship - former four-star recruit D'Wan Mathis and former walk-on Stetson Bennett .
Georgia had numbers - it even had experience in the form of two former starting quarterbacks transferring in. But by the time the season opener at Arkansas rolled around Daniels had not yet been cleared to play, and Newman had opted out of the season, for what reason was not totally clear.
That left the Bulldog coaching staff with fewer options than they expected with just a couple weeks before the season started.
"JT (Daniels) is not completely cleared yet. He is practicing with us, as he has been doing. If we didn't think he was going to be cleared then we wouldn't be practicing him. He is continuing to practice, so is D'Wan Mathis, Carson Beck and Stetson Bennett. As far as we can tell, it's going to be a game-time decision."
The options were limited - a walk-on, a true freshman and a redshirt freshman. Only Bennett had taken a snap in a college football game. Smart and company were in a bind. The decision was to start Mathis in the season opener at Arkansas. By the second quarter Smart realized it was time for a change.
In came Bennett, and the rest is history - it just took a while to get to history.
On Bennett's first drive of the game the Dawgs tallied nearly as many yards (37) as they had to that point in the game (43). A failed fourth-and-one just outside the red zone stopped Georgia from scoring. Two drives later Bennett and the Dawgs went 59 yards in eight plays to cut the Arkansas lead to only two at 7-5.
After the half, the Dawgs kept moving the ball. A fumble cost Georgia the ball after going 33 yards in six plays. Then Bennett and UGA got into the end zone for the first time all year. George Pickens dove into the end zone from five yards out after to earn a 19-yard touchdown. Bennett added an electric two-point conversion to give Georgia a 13-10 lead.
It felt like everything changed after that, and it did.
Zamir White blocked Arkansas' punt on the next drive, and four plays later Bennett connected with John FitzPatrick for a seven-yard touchdown. Eric Stokes ' pick six two plays after that put the game out of reach for the Hogs. But for good measure Bennett and UGA went 13 plays and 81 yards for another score - this time a six-yard run from White - to show the offense was functioning. That had not been obvious at the start of the game.
Bennett was the talk of college football - just in time for a huge showdown in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. Up for the challenge, he went 17 of 28 for 240 yards and a score to outplay Auburn's Bo Nix during No. 4 Georgia's 27-6 win over No. 7 Auburn Between the Hedges.
But Bennett wouldn't hold onto the starting job forever. The offense sputtered during the second half against No. 2 Alabama thanks to numerous miscues from the former walk-on. UGA looked listless two weeks later at Kentucky . And in Jacksonville, Bennett got hurt with the Dawgs up 14-0 on No. 8 Florida. Georgia could not hang with the high-flying Gators during a 44-28 loss.
The injury combined with the poor play and another week of before playing Mississippi State lead to Smart and the Dawgs considered making a change at quarterback.
"Stetson is bouncing back," Smart said during the off week. "He is still limited a little bit, but we've not done anything since Thursday. I don't know where he is until later this week. The competition will continue on like it did last week."
The competition was between all four scholarship quarterbacks again. Eventually Daniels won out, and he put on a show after he did. He threw for 400 yards and four touchdowns. The student section was chanting his name by the end of the night - something that had not happened in modern UGA history.
Daniels was the under center moving forward. His play at Missouri (299 yards and three touchdowns) and during the win over Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl (392 yards and one touchdown and one interception) reinforced that he was the starter.
Daniels announced he would come back for the 2021 season in early January. Bennett would, presumably, be his backup. But Daniels could not stay healthy - preseason or during the season. He missed Georgia's second game of the year against UAB, and Bennett took advantage - throwing five touchdowns in the first half alone. A week later Daniels started, but Bennett played against South Carolina .
By the final weekend of September, Georgia looked unstoppable. And Daniels was making things look easy. During a 62-0 win over Vanderbilt, Daniels was under center as the Bulldogs got up 35-0 in one quarter. The fifth touchdown of the quarter was Ladd McConkey taking a reverse from Daniels to score a 24-yard touchdown.
"By the time the No. 1 Dawgs left the field after the 41-17 win over Tennessee it wasn't so clear if Bennett would ever give up the starting spot."
It was the last play of significance Daniels had at Georgia.
A week later Daniels was considered a "game-time" decision to play against Arkansas. Instead it was Bennett who took over and led the No. 2 Bulldogs to a 37-0 win over No. 8 Arkansas. Then Bennett went on the road and started in the win over No. 18 Auburn. Then another start over No. 11 Kentucky. Then a start over Florida; then Missouri.
By the time the No. 1 Dawgs left the field after the 41-17 win over Tennessee it wasn't so clear if Bennett would ever give up the starting spot - no matter if Daniels was healthy or not. Georgia was rolling, and Bennett's legs - not just his arm - was a major reason why. Bennett had been replaced by Daniels as the starter after an injury in Jacksonville a season before - why was him getting the starting job back because of injury any different?
Smart avoided questions about who his starter would be in the fall, but Todd Monken was far more direct with reporters after a loss to No. 3 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Leading into the Orange Bowl against No. 2 Michigan , Monken was clear as to why Bennett was, in fact, the starter for the Bulldogs.
"The reason Stetson Bennett plays is we think he gives us the best chance to win. Without getting into too much detail, we think he gives us the best chance to win, and that's really the end of that question," Monken said.
Bennett was even more direct with the criticism he got at the time.
"I don't really care what anybody else says," he said before the Michigan game.
Then Bennett smashed the Wolverines (313 yards and three touchdowns) before getting his revenge on Alabama (224 yards and two touchdowns). Bennett had grown from being the emergency backup at Arkansas to the reason why Georgia was winning it all.
A year later he played so well (4,127 yards, 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions with 57 runs for 205 yards and ten touchdowns) that he was a Heisman Finalist on the way to winning it all again for the Bulldogs with an undefeated season in 2022.
But it all started in the Ozarks. That's where Stetson Bennett's improbable journey made its earliest appearance. Georgia needed a quarterback. It turns out Kirby Smart had one the entire time.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/georgia as Georgia Football's Stetson Bennett Started His Improbable Story at Arkansas .
