The Improbable Career of Stetson Bennett
February 13, 2023
The college football season has ended and the University of Georgia(UGA) are back to back national champions. They are the first since Alabama in 2011 and 2012. Georgia is led by quarterback Stetson Bennett. But it hasn’t been easy for Bennett. He has been doubted his entire football career.
Stetson Bennett was born on October 29 1997 in Blackshear Georgia. Ever since a young age Bennett was a big fan of UGA and dreamed of playing quarterback for the school. But out of high school at 5’9 185 Bennett was only a 2 star recruit with his only offer from Middle Tennessee State. While attending a football camp with college recruits Bennett wore a USPS hat to stand out where he would get the nickname “The Mailman”. But Bennett chose to walk on at Georgia. His freshman year he redshirted and later transferred to Jones County Junior College in East Mississippi.
After his season at Jones County Junior College Bennett would try to transfer back to a school with a stronger football program, and he got offers from the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) and Georgia. Stetson Bennett’s first season back at Georgia in the 2019-2020 season he backed up Junior quarterback Jake Fromm who brought Georgia to the national championship a year before. Bennett would play his first game at Georgia against Murray in a 63-17 win where he threw the ball 13 times for 124 yards and his first 2 touchdowns for Georgia. Bennett would play in three other games that season but didn’t see much success.
In the 2020-2021 season Georgia’ starting quarterback Jake Fromm left the team and Georgia had two quarterbacks transfer in: JT Daniels who was the number one player in his class and Jamie Newman the starting QB for Wake Forest. They also had Dwan Mathis, a 4 star QB on the roster. But because of COVID Jamie Newman decided to opt out of the season and JT Daniels didn’t know the offense, so Bennett won the starting QB job. After the first three games he was playing quite well, throwing for 689 yards and 5 touchdowns, resulting in 2 wins against top 25 teams.
However, after a stretch of 3 bad games, he was benched for Daniels. After being benched, Bennett would not play again that season.
In the 2021-2022 season Bennett was the backup behind Daniels. But after Georgia’s 10-3 win over #3 Clemson Daniels got hurt and would be out for the next week giving Bennett a chance to start again. In Bennett’s first game against UAB he went 10 for 12 throwing for 5 touchdowns. But the next week Daniels returned and started again against South Carolina throwing for 303 yards and 3 touchdowns. But next week Bennett got the starting job again but this time keeping it for the rest of the season. His first three games Bennett beat #8 Arkansas, #18 Auburn and number #11 Kentucky and led Georgia to an undefeated regular season, the first since 1980 when they won the national championship.
In the SEC championship game Georgia got blown out by Alabama putting them in question for the College Football Playoffs. But they would end up getting the three seed and play #2 Michigan in the Orange Bowl. In the Orange Bowl Stetson would throw for 313 yards with 3 touchdowns in a blow out 34-11 win and get their rematch with Alabama. After not playing well halfway through the 4th quarter down 13-18 Bennett threw a 40 yard touchdown to freshman Adonai Mitchell to take the lead 19-18. After Georgia scored again making 26-18 Alabama was trying to tie the game but with one minute left RS-freshman Kelee Ringo would intercept Heisman winner Bryce Young’s pass taking it 80 yards for the game-ending touchdown. Winning Georgia’s first national championship since 1980 with Bennett winning Offensive MVP of the game.
Bennett would announce he would stay at Georgia for one more year. After Daniels transferred in the offseason the starting job was finally Stetson’s. In the first week of the season Georgia would play #11 Oregon in a highly anticipated game he would throw for 386 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 49-3 win and despite losing 15 starters from last year Georgia was looking to repeat. After a games where they struggled they would play #1 Tennessee and would get a dominating 27-13 win Bennett would throw for 257 yards and throw 2 touchdowns and run one in proving they were the best team in the country. Georgia would end going undefeated and playing LSU in the SEC championship won 50-30 he threw for 274 and 4 touchdowns and got the first seed in the college football playoffs and would play Ohio State he would also finish 4th in Heisman voting
In the game against Ohio State, Georgia would go down 21-7 early and tied but would be down 28-21 at half . Ohio State would score 10 points to increase the lead 38-24 in the 3rd quarter looking like they punched their ticket to the national championship. With a 76 yard touchdown pass and a 2 point conversion and a Ohio State field the sc0re was 41-35 and Bennett had a chance to lead a game winning drive and with :53 seconds left he would connect with Adoni Mitchell to take the lead. As the clock hit midnight on New Years Eve Ohio State kicker would miss a 50 yard field goal. Now Georgia would play TCU in the national championship. From early on Georgia dominated TCU and never took their foot off the gas. With the 52-7 coach Kirby Smart called timeout to give a curtain call for Bennett. In his last game he threw for 304 yards four touchdowns while rushing for two touchdowns and winning offensive MVP of the game.
From being a walk on to a back to back national champion, Stetson Bennett has defied all the odds. At the age of 25 Bennett has received a lot of hate from fans for being very undersized for a QB but ESPN analyst Mel Kiper sees Bennett as a 3rd round prospect in the NFL Draft this April.