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Stetson Bennett trying to translate college experience into NFL success

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•03/04/23•

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Stetson Bennett
(Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS — Stetson Bennett isn’t like the other quarterbacks in this year’s NFL Draft class. In fact, he’s the only one that’s won a National Championship as a starter. Does that make him better? Not necessarily, but there’s no way you can doubt his experience in big games.

“A thousand percent. I think once you’re in that situation, you know what the situation is. You understand everything that comes with it, you can handle it, you know how to prepare,” Bennett told reporters on Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, site of his first national title. “I think it definitely – for me, it was always the unknown. What does this championship, oooo ahhh, look like? It’s a game, and you’ve got to play well in it. All the lights in the world don’t matter if you don’t win. So just go win.”

Bennett’s story has been told thousands times – if not more. Walk-on turned scholarship player, backup turned starter and eventually a champion. He’s a legend in Athens for years and years to come. Now making the transition from college to pro, Bennett is trying to convey a message of honesty to NFL teams, especially after the criticism he’s received this offseason deciding not to go to the Senior Bowl and being arrested in Dallas during the week he would have been there.

“I just try to be honest. I feel like, I don’t put a lot of myself out there on purpose,” Bennett said. “The stuff that people get of me, they run with. They try to read into it instead of just seeing what it is. I tried to just be honest with them like I try to be honest with you guys every single time I’m up here. That’s what I would continue to try to do.”

“You know, I’ve got confidence in my abilities,” he continued when asked if he was the best quarterback in the draft. “Everybody asks that question. There’s so much more to playing quarterback than people know. There’s different offenses, different checks, different motions, whatever. Whatever you’re asked to do, that’s all you can do in the offense. Then you have your physical ability. A lot of people have physical ability, right? Especially at the quarterback position, the mental acuity and how you can handle certain situations, you can’t really measure that. I have confidence in my ability, but also all these dudes are players too.”

Bennett will workout on the field Saturday afternoon and said he hopes to “run fast, jump high and throw it well.” It’s his belief that everything he did at the college level under a coordinator with NFL experience – will translate to the next level too.

“I think that I can try to translate everything I did at the college level skill wise to try to make it better so I can apply it here. This is the ultimate league,” Bennett said. “… The way I see it, you only get one of these lives. I’m playing football right now so I’m going to try to do it to the best of my ability. That doesn’t mean try really hard. That means figure out, is this the right area to try hard at or is this one? What’s the best area to try hard at, figure it out and then give a thousand percent there.”

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