Kirby Smart on Stetson Bennett: 'He kept proving us wrong'
NEW YORK — Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made the decision to stick with quarterback Stetson Bennett last year through trials and tribulations. Smart has said before that the coaches tried to find any other option, but Bennett left them with no other choice but to play him. It was his way of proving them wrong.
“Wow,” Smart said at the Heisman Trophy ceremony. “The American Dream. This guy was Baker Mayfield for one game as the scout-team quarterback and he did a hell of a job being that. He won over his teammates by the way he performed on the scout team and he just kept getting better. We kept thinking he wasn’t good enough and he kept proving us wrong over and over and over again.”
“He earned it in practice. He earned it with his teammates. He earned it with the way he performed in every big moment and he did that this year as well.”
On the season, Bennett has thrown for 3,425 yards and 20 touchdowns with just six interceptions. He’s also added seven rushing scores and 184 yards on the ground on 47 attempts. The sixth-year senior from Blackshear, Ga. started the season off with a career-high 368 passing yards in Georgia’s victory over Oregon. That began a stretch of four straight games with 250+ passing yards and a rushing touchdown, becoming just the second SEC quarterback to do so alongside Tim Tebow – who was three times a Heisman finalist and won the award in 2007.
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Bennett seemingly hit a bit of a slump against Missouri and Auburn not throwing for any touchdowns and rushing for only one – albeit a highlight reel 64-yard scamper – before breaking out with a big day versus Vanderbilt. Bennett completed 15 of his first 16 passes against the Commodores on his way to two touchdowns, the first of four straight games with two or more scores. During that stretch he also had a rushing touchdown against Tennessee that got Georgia on the board early in the big SEC showdown as well as one where he made a Mississippi State defender miss on his way into the end zone in the SEC East clinching victory.
Last Saturday, Bennett was named MVP of the SEC Championship Game as he threw for a season-high four touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 50-30 win over LSU. Doing so helped secure Georgia a spot in the College Football Playoffs where it holds the top seed. There Kirby Smart, Stetson Bennett and the rest of the team will take on Ohio State in the semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on December 31st in Atlanta. Bennett is no stranger to that big of a stage either, earning MVP in both of Georgia’s Playoff games last year. Against Michigan and Alabama, he threw for a combined 537 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions as Georgia went on to win the National Championship, its first in 41 years.
