Relationship fuels rise of Stetson Bennett, Todd Monken duo

ATLANTA — The quarterback-coordinator relationship between Stetson Bennett and Todd Monken is one that has worked for both sides. Bennett arrived on the scene as he saved the day against Arkansas in 2020. It was also Monken’s first game at Georgia. And while there were hiccups between the two – and probably a couple of tough conversations too – it’s a football marriage that has allowed Georgia to be one of the most successful offenses in the country with the two leaders at the helm.

“I feel like before he got here, I didn’t really understand football,” Bennett said on Wednesday ahead of Georgia’s Peach Bowl matchup with Ohio State. “It’s weird, even in 2020, didn’t really know what was going on. You know, I knew what play was called, other than though, you know, I mean, I don’t really know how to describe it … Maybe I’m a slow learner.”

“I just didn’t have the game nailed down. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking at,” Bennett added. “It’s easy out there; you’ve got 300-pound dudes running at you and you’re like ‘Oh, I don’t want that to hit me. That would hurt.’ So, I guess I was seeing ghosts. I thought they might run their third-down package on first down, and they’re not going to do that. They don’t have the personnel to do that. I didn’t know how all that applied and what it all meant, so I would create problems for myself without really understanding, ‘No, they can’t do that because you can only have 11 and that guy is standing right there. He can’t come from over here because he’s right there,’ and just seeing it that way.”

Spending three years with a coach who’s spent the last 33 in coaching certainly will do that. He’s learned a thing or two in his time in football and is able to share that with his quarterback – one that was far from a finished product when he took over the starting job. Monken however thinks that Bennett is giving him too much credit.

“Well, I think he’s overplaying that way, way, way too much because I’m sitting here. The reality is Stetson is a very, very football-smart player. Maybe I had one too many verys. But Stetson is a very smart player. He loves football. I mean, he sits in there, studies it, will be in there late. He wants to know everything about what we’re doing, how to do it better. He’s one of the rarer guys at this level that you can be quarterback controlled, and he can run it. He can get us in and out of plays. He can see it. Has a fantastic football mind,” Monken said when asked about his role in the development of Bennett. “So to say that, like I said, that’s unfair to himself. It’s unfair to his preparation and what he’s done. You know, I do think there’s a point in a player’s progression where maybe — and this is a guess, we’ve never talked about that – okay, Stetson comes in, he leaves, comes back, what vision does he have of himself, you know, that, sure, he’d love to be the starter at Georgia. But deep down is he really thinking like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be the starter at Georgia.”

“I think once you get a chance to play in meaningful games and you realize like ‘I always believed I could play,’ because we played Arkansas my first year here, and thank God he came in the game and rescued our ass, because he played his rear end off and right there, maybe to him and us, we’re like this guy’s a really good football player,” Monken added. “So I think there’s a little too much he’s putting on that about me and the fact that maybe it’s a combination of two things of like, ‘Okay, man, I can do this, and how do I maximize my measurable skill set. How do I get better, this that I’ve worked on gets better.’ And then for us, how do we try to find ways to maximize what he does well to give us the best chance to win.”

Quarterback and coordinator is always going to be an interesting relationship to watch. As Bennett has said before, they don’t really talk during the game. There’s an interpreter of sorts that plays middle man in their communication. But looking at how each speaks about one another, there’s a respect that’s clearly been earned over time. Bennett has made mistakes and paid the price for them. He’s learned from them and proven himself to be the best player in a quarterback room always loaded with talent. To him, that’s all he had to do to solidify his standing and his relationship with Monken.

“You know, I’d always make these throws like one or two and I’d be like ‘Man, there’s no way that’s not good.’ I keep hearing people tell me that I’m not good but that looked good. And I’d look at it and be, ‘Am I dumb?’ I didn’t think so,” Bennett said. “If I can do it once, I can do it all the time. It’s just a motion. I don’t want to sound like a nerd or smarter than I am but gravity works. Physics work and blah, blah, blah. If I can do it once and figure how to do it multiple times, I might be good. Who knows.”

Bennett and his Bulldogs take on Ohio State this Saturday in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Peach Bowl. Kickoff time is set for 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.