Todd Monken answers Georgia quarterback questions at Orange Bowl media day

MIAMI, Fla. — Quarterbacks have been all that anybody wants to talk about in Athens this football season. Unsurprisingly, the topic of conversation dominated Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken‘s time with the media on Tuesday.

In case you don’t know, the saga goes like this: JT Daniels was declared the starter by Georgia head coach Kirby Smart during spring practice. That was reaffirmed going into fall camp, and Daniels started the Bulldogs’ season opener against No. 3 Clemson, leading them to a 10-3 victory.

Then, Daniels missed a start with an oblique injury, and Stetson Bennett started in his place. Bennett, who started five games in 2020 before losing his starting spot to Daniels, threw for a school-record five touchdowns, all of which came in the first half.

However, Daniels was healthy enough to return and play the next two games, putting up a combined 432 passing yards, five touchdowns and a total of 75 points on the board in just five quarters of action. Finally, Daniels was once again sidelined with an injury, this time a strain of his lat muscle, and Bennett has controlled the starting spot every game since, helping guide the Bulldogs to their first 12-0 regular season in program history and a spot in the College Football Playoffs.

“First off, the reason Stetson Bennett plays is we think he gives us the best chance to win,” Monken said on Tuesday. “Without getting into too much detail, we think he gives us the best chance to win, and that’s really the end of that question.”

However, that wasn’t the end of the questioning on quarterbacks, and Monken said more.

“You know, I think Stetson at times — I’m talking about me, have probably undervalued his skill set,” Monken said. “We’ve tried to elevate guys that have talent on our roster, and we do that at every position, and some guys just combat that and fight and scratch and continue to play well and try to prove you wrong, and that’s what Stetson Bennett did.”

“It wasn’t really anything JT did, it was more along the lines of what Stetson did that we thought gave us the best chance to win,” he continued. “His mobility, those things, in the run game and the pass game when things break down, we believe give us the best chance to win. It’s nothing really that JT did, and it just happened where Stetson got an opportunity, took advantage of that opportunity, we continued to win. It never really ended up flipping the other way … Sometimes opportunity leads to things that end up going in your direction. It never went back the other way where JT got a chance to get in there. So it’s just the way it is, and we believe that he gives us the best chance to win in a couple of those things that I’ve said.”

It’s easy to see why one might undervalue Bennett, especially when compared to Daniels. One came to Georgia as a walk-on, left for junior college before coming back only when the quarterback situation was dire. The other was a five-star, High School National Championship winning quarterback who the Bulldogs specifically sought out from the transfer portal. However, as Monken explained, sometimes people get too caught up in recruiting rankings as opposed to performance on the field.

“We went into the SEC Championship game with Stetson Bennett as our quarterback as a favorite over a team that hasn’t been an underdog in over five years. That ought to tell you about our quarterback and how he played,” Monken said. “For some reason we get into this stereotyping of players based on where they were at some point. Okay, at some point, be it one was a walk on, one was a five star, whatever. If you just look at the production and what he’s done for our football team, it’s impressive.”

The confidence Monken has in Bennett is clear. And while a large portion of Georgia fans would rather see Daniels lining up behind center come Friday when the Bulldogs take on No. 2 Michigan for a spot in the National Championship Game, one thing they can all agree on is wanting to see their team raise a trophy in Indianapolis on January 10th. Monken believes Bennett can do just that.

“If you look at the plays he’s made, he’s made National Championship plays. He has,” Monken said. “You turn on the film and look at some of the throws he makes, the decisions he makes, the things he does with his feet. There’s no doubt in my mind we can win the National Championship, and there’s no doubt in my mind we can win it with Stetson Bennett.”

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