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How a win over UAB changed everything for Stetson Bennett

Stetson Bennett’s story has been told many times over by this point. The walk-on who left, went to JUCO, came back, sat as back-up, started, returned to the bench only to then become a starter again and ultimately lead Georgia to where it now sits, one game away from winning its second straight national championship.

Bennett has a chance to take down a couple of records with even a decent game against the Horned Frogs. He can claim both the single season school passing yard record and become the first Georgia quarterback to throw for more than 4,000-yards in one season. Along with being Georgia’s first two-time national championship winning quarterback and the school’s first Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback.

Related: Hamilton, Biggie and Stetson Bennett living the ‘American Dream’ for Georgia football at the Heisman Trophy ceremony

He’s come a long way since getting booed as he made his first start of the 2021 season. That came against UAB, when Bennett filled in for an injured JT Daniels.

Many hoped to see Carson Beck, who was named by offensive coordinator Todd Monken as the No. 2 quarterback at the start of fall practice in 2021. The game against the Blazers was of little consequence in the grand scheme of things, as the Bulldogs were coming off a knock-down, drag-out game against Clemson.

It may not have been an important result to the fan base, but what happened to Bennett that day, and in the practices after, had a profound impact on him getting to the precipice of history.

“I did realize after 2020, and I hated them and I was like screw you guys, blah, blah, blah, but after that, maybe it was after I started playing in 2021 and after UAB, I was like, you know, they are going to play the best player,” Bennett said prior to Georgia’s win over Ohio State. “They’re going to play the best player. Their job is to win; if they don’t win they’re going to get fired. They’re making a lot of money right now and they don’t want to get fired.”

Instead of seeing what an unproven Beck could do, Georgia went with the somewhat known option in Bennett. It was only a season before in a game against Arkansas that Georgia opted to go with the more high-upside player in D’Wan Mathis instead of Bennett.

That decision backfired and Bennett came in during the second quarter. He ended up leading Georgia to a win and would start the next five games in the 2020 season before being benched for Daniels.

“I‘ll be damned if we got to Arkansas to start and play like shit to start and thank God he’s there for us because we could have lost that game,” Monken said. “He comes in and plays his ass off and shows the same thing he’s been doing all the time during practice. It’s a building process collectively together.

“A credit to him, at times you look at other directions for players and you’re not smart enough to see what’s right under your nose and the player you have is sitting right there.”

With Daniels having an oblique injury, Bennett was right there once again for Georgia to start. And he didn’t wait long to wow, throwing a 73-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Burton on the game’s second play.

“So, I was like, let’s play,” Bennett said. “After that, I’m like as long as they’re best player they’re going to play me, right? It wasn’t like opinions or feelings; all I had to do was be best player and I was going to play.”

Bennett couldn’t stop throwing touchdowns that day, as he finished the game with five on 12 pass attempts. He threw for 288 yards in the win, a 56-7 triumph over the Blazers. Given all the other events of the season, it was not a partically memorable game to many, with teammate Sedrick Van Pran misremembering that it was Brock Bowers had an 89-yard touchdown in the win.

Daniels would return the next week against South Carolina, but Bennett still found himself on the field for Georgia. In true two-steps forward, three-steps back fashion, Bennett threw an interception and any idea of a quarterback competition seemed to firmly at rest.

But Daniels got hurt again next week against Vanderbilt. He wouldn’t start a game for the rest of the season for Georgia as Bennett took over. This time, there was no step back for Bennett. He just kept taking steps forward, leading Georgia to a 12-0 mark at the end of the regular season.

He took what he learned from the UAB game — a performance he himself called an outlier — and was able to apply those lessons to his benefit.

“The biggest thing was when I went back and watched the tape I could see my motion,” Bennett said. “Yeah, that was what I was working on. That’s what I wanted to do and it showed up. That’s how it built. It wasn’t like we beat UAB by a million. But if that’s right, then yeah, I can play.”

Related: Stetson Bennett knows Georgia football offense must ‘clean things up and play better’ against TCU

Bennett has continued to play for the Bulldogs, even if at times those ups-and-downs have come up during the course of games. Consider the win over Ohio State, when Bennett admitted to playing bad football.

But he turned things around and played a brilliant fourth quarter. He completed 10 of his 12 passes to end the game, throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns in the comeback win.

“The one thing I’ll say about Stetson is he’s a battler,” Monken said. “He’s not unlike any other quarterback. He makes mistakes, but he’s pretty good at putting it in the back of his mind and finding ways to continue to battle and make plays. So there’s all those moments of when players have sustained success, I think it builds confidence in any coach. Sustained success is the greatest indicator of your confidence in any given player just like any relationship.”

Monken compared the development of his relationship with Bennett to that of his wife. Like her staying on him to improve, Monken continues to be hard on Bennett. And while the growth hasn’t always been linear, it’s undeniable that Bennett is a far better play than he was when he first stepped on the field against Arkansas, when he told reporters he couldn’t even grip the football he was shaking so much.

Bennett has learned a lot over his long Georgia career. Both about the game of football and life. He is set to conclude his time at Georgia following Monday’s game against the Horned Frogs, he’ll take a lifetime of lessons into his next career.

And as he reaches the final stop in his Georgia career, he looks back fondly on the journey that got him to SoFi Stadium. From the two national championships to a win over a Conference USA program.

“You’re going to have to work but it’s not about the championships or the gravy at the end of the journey,” Bennett said. “It’s about the journey. That’s why you got to pick something you love because then you can get through the day-to-day and work hard and chase excellence and be proud of it”

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