ATLANTA — Stetson Bennett raised both arms in the air, clenched his fists and then embraced his coach, Kirby Smart.
This one felt good: his first SEC championship as Georgia’s starting quarterback— and, perhaps, as a Heisman Trophy finalist? Don’t laugh!
Bennett mirrors this Bulldogs team as a whole: Solidly consistent, reliable, not too flashy but impressive, a few hiccups but none too troubling.
This is Georgia. This is Bennett. It has been this way for two years now, an incredible run of 31 wins in a 32-game span. The latest on Saturday—a 50–30 drubbing of LSU—solidified the Bulldogs as the country’s top-ranked football team. They’ll almost certainly be the No. 1 seed in Sunday’s College Football Playoff bracket reveal, and they are likely to be paired with either Ohio State (11–1) or TCU (12–1) in a game right back here in Atlanta.
Good luck to any team having to play these Bulldogs—especially in their backyard. They are similar to last year’s Bulldogs: big, strong, fast and with a quarterback who’s turned years of doubt into consecutive seasons so impressive that he’s got former Georgia quarterbacks claiming he, Stetson Bennett, is the best among them.
John Bazemore/AP
“Not only is Stetson Bennett going to NYC, he has moved into GOAT status at UGA,” tweeted former Bulldogs quarterback Aaron Murray. “He is the greatest QB in Georgia history.”
Is Bennett bound for the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York next weekend? We’ll find out in a couple of days. Voting ends Monday afternoon and the finalists are announced soon afterward. But let’s check in on the stats from Mr. Consistent, a moniker which is by no means an insult: He’s averaging 263.4 yards passing a game, with 27 touchdowns (20 through the air, seven on the ground) and six interceptions, and completing more than 67.2% of his passes.
On Saturday, all Bennett did was throw four touchdowns, zero picks and complete 23 of 29 attempts. He and the Bulldogs exorcised the demons that existed here from last season, when Alabama halted their winning streak in revolting fashion: a 41–24 loss in the SEC championship game.
Is this Georgia team better than that Georgia team? Maybe. Certainly, its quarterback has improved. Bennett, a sixth-year player who sat on the bench his first four years in Athens, has already barreled through his yardage mark from last season, bettered his completion percentage and has tossed fewer interceptions despite more than 100 additional completions. Who’s to say that he doesn’t belong in New York City?
On Saturday, the Bulldogs got some gifts. To win this game against LSU (9–4), Georgia did not need a twice-deflected pass that bounded off of a Tigers’ player’s helmet and turned into an interception. It also did not need a 96-yard blocked field goal that it returned for a touchdown. (And, yes, it got both of those things.)
But don’t let that overshadow such a dominant outing. The defense forced four punts, stuffed the Tigers on a fourth-down attempt inside the 5-yard line and got a rousing fourth-down sack in the fourth quarter to seal it. Its offense, meanwhile, hit the half-century mark by going for a two-point conversation while up 48–23 early in the fourth quarter (Kirby!!).
It was as dominant of an outing as we’ve seen from this team during quite a dominant season. Sure, Georgia has stumbled a bit through the course of the year. Who can forget its struggle against Kent State, the woeful performance at Missouri and the lackluster outing at Kentucky? But here the Bulldogs are with an unblemished record and a quarterback who should be heading to the Big Apple.
Forget about that game-manager narrative you often hear—Bennett can carve through defenses right up there with the next guy, including those who might be joining him in New York. Does he have the NFL draft prospects of USC’s Caleb Williams? Certainly not. How about the wheels of TCU’s Max Duggan? Probably a no.
But he’s Mr. Consistent. And, no, that’s not an insult!
“I’ve got good players around me,” Bennett said afterward, “and I’m not that bad at football either.”
No, he is most certainly not.
