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Stetson Bennett refuses to exit South Carolina game despite nausea

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•09/17/22•

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COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 17: Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett (13) stands in the pocket during a football game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the South Carolina Gamecocks on September 17, 2022, at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC. (Photo by Charles Brock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett battled for his Bulldogs in Saturday’s win over South Carolina. The sixth-year senior refused to come off the field during Georgia’s third drive of the game despite fighting nausea.

Head coach Kirby Smart said he saw his quarterback struggling, even dry heaving on the field. Bennett threw an incompletion out to the flats that left Smart knowing something wasn’t quite right. But Bennett refused to come off the field. After eventually throwing up on the grass of Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., Bennett ended the drive with maybe a more impressive throw up – a 6-yard touchdown pass to Brock Bowers along the edge of the end zone.

“He actually was dry-heaving way back in the drive, back earlier when he threw a pass in the flat and didn’t quite get it there. It was not a great pass and I could tell something wasn’t right then,” Smart said. “He fought all the way right through it and he made a couple of throws when he threw up before them and he hung in there and made the throw. He was overhydrated in terms of drinking a lot of water. He kept saying he felt like he had to throw up and he did. He’s a competitor. He wouldn’t come out.”

“There was a thought, ‘Hey, we need to get him out’ the play before, I think the hold on the extra point,” he added. “You know, we were trying to get him out to where we could get somebody else in to hold for the extra point, and he wouldn’t come out. He wanted to stay in and play … He was fine. He said he was fine. He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m back now. I’m good.’ He said he started coughing, then he dry-heaved and then he threw up some. But, he’s a competitor. He wasn’t coming out ’til we were up far enough that we wanted to take him out.”

Bennett has always shown that kind of fight for his Georgia Bulldogs, the team he grew up watching and dreaming of one day playing for. The former walk-on guided Georgia to its first National Championship in 41 seasons last year. While there wasn’t a title on the line today in the SEC opener, it certainly was a valiant effort from Bennett.

“I knew I would be fine for the snap and the play, it was the in between that I was trying to throw up,” Bennett said. “It was a heat thing. It was my stomach heating up, I coughed so I kind of gagged and I just threw up.”

“I threw up some of the water. I had to re-hydrate there. From overhyrdration to dehydration. It was weird.”

Based on the way that Bennett was playing, you wouldn’t have notice. He ended the day throwing for 284 yards and two touchdowns in a little over two quarters of action. Had it not been for coming out early, Bennett likely would have had his third straight 300-yard day to start the season.

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