Bennett brothers reveling in special shared experience of Georgia season

ATLANTA — College Football’s COVID season created a cluster-you-know-what for figuring out player eligibility across the country. Guys are now on campus for five, six, seven seasons at a time, taking full advantage of the 2020 year that didn’t count against the typical four seasons of NCAA eligibility. Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett has been among those, now in his sixth season, but for Bennett, it’s also created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play on the same team as his brother.

Everybody knows Stetson’s story, but freshman receiver Luke Bennett is lesser known. Sometimes people don’t even know his name, and he’s just “Stetson’s brother.” But if you ask him, he doesn’t care. Being able to be alongside Stetson for his final season at Georgia has been special enough that it’s all worth it in his eyes.

“It’s been really special,” Luke said. “Being brothers, you’re really close. Since he’s been in college, I’ve been back home and we haven’t been as close as you’d like to be as brothers, but this last year, off the field we’ve become closer, the bond has become stronger. It’s been really neat being there for each other going through the same part of life.”

“It’s been awesome. Me and Luke are real sentimental,” Stetson added. “Maybe a little bit of a hoarder – not really, we throw away stuff – but things that mean something mean something. Seeing your childhood home or going back to your elementary school from when you were a kid. That’ll make me tear up. So for my little brother to come here and play football with me at the University of Georgia, we grew up coming to games. We grew up on Saturday morning or Friday night after a high school game coming and running and then going to games. Are you kidding me? Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

While Luke has yet to appear in a game and Stetson has been the star of the show, that hasn’t stopped the two from sharing moments together in practice. At times they’ll find each other by happenstance as the quarterback-receiver pairing for routes on air. Both admitted that that’s something that makes them nervous.

“Every time I throw to him I’m like, ‘Nice.’ I honestly get a little nervous throwing to him. I don’t know, I don’t want to mess it up,” Stetson said.

“It’s been very special. It’s been awesome. We’ll be running routes on air, and it just happens to line up where Stet is the quarterback for the route. I’ll kind of get nervous because I don’t want to mess it up either like he said,” Luke added. “It’s been great. It’s just like old times in the back yard.”

Ultimately for Luke, Stetson’s story has been one that he’s enjoyed taking in: as a fan, as his teammate and as his brother. It’s also one that provides the walk-on wide receiver with some sense of motivation to do the same. The older Bennett shared some advice for his brother along the way too.

“The biggest thing – there’s two things really – pay attention really and do everything you can to, pick out an older guy in front of you and study him. See how he runs routes, see how he releases and watch it over and over and work on that. The older guys know what they’re doing. The other big thing is, don’t listen to anybody else,” Luke said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else says. They’re not in your shoes. If they say you can’t do something, who cares?”

“It’s humbling and motivating both at the same time,” he added. “He’s always worked his tail off. He’s always been told he couldn’t do something, he’s too small, he’s too short, not fast enough, not strong enough. That’s the same way with me. Seeing it as a fan last year, you just see the games. You don’t see the practices, everything that goes into it, but being up here this year and getting to see day to day in the weight room, on the field, in the film room, you get to see every little detail and see him work his tail off. It’s what everybody else doesn’t see, and it’s shown me what it takes. It’s motivating to do the same thing.”