JD PicKell: How Stetson Bennett continues to shed labels even after winning national title

On3’s JD PicKell believes many have been too critical of Georgia Bulldogs star quarterback Stetson Bennett; assigning labels to him that are now unjust. And During a recent episode of the Hard Count explains what those labels are and how Bennett continues to shed them even after leading the Bulldogs to a National Championship.

“I don’t know if you realize or not, but we have labeled Stetson Bennett multiple times. We have given him numerous labels that he is now continuing to shed, move on from, and prove that he is not those labels that we gave him early in his career,” said PicKell. “Because originally the billing was walk-on; that was his label. Walk-on quarterback that Georgia is winning in spite of. He says, fine; I’ll go to a JUCO. I’ll come back, get a scholarship; wins a national title.”

Bennett is the definition of an underdog story. In 2017 he became a walk-on at Georgia for his freshman season. In the following offseason, with the commitment of Justin Fields, he elected to transfer to Jones County Junior College. After one season at JCJC and Fields hopping in the transfer portal heading to Ohio State, Bennett transferred back to Georgia. However, it wasn’t until the 2021 season that he got his true opportunity to lead the Bulldogs out right after JT Daniels went down early in the season with an oblique injury. From there, the rest is history as the Bulldogs ended last season as national champions, with Bennett being named the 2022 CFP National Championship MVP.

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There is another level to the discredit Bennett deals with. According to PicKell, many view him as nothing more than serviceable.

“The second piece is, well, he’s good, not great; he’s serviceable. You kind of know what you have with him; good, not great. Because we saw Stetson Bennett play for Georgia before this national title run, and that was the label that we put on him… to the same token, human beings; evolve, progress, experience things, and get better.

“And Stetson Bennett has done that in large part over his 37 years playing college football at Georgia. Now it hasn’t been a smooth incline the entire time… but for the most part, continues to trend upward. And we’re seeing that right now. We’re seeing him continue to surpass whatever box we had put him. He just had arguably his best game of his career against Oregon this past Saturday.”

Regardless of how you view Bennett, it is undeniable that he has improved dramatically since his early years at Georgia. And his improvement has led to more of an offensive boom that was more than noticeable against Oregon. Bennett completed 25 is 31 pass attempts for 368 yards with two touchdowns. With his improvement, opponents don’t have to just worry about Georgia’s suffocated defense but now a potential Bulldogs offensive explosion.