Kirby Smart was going to make a change, wasn’t he? Coming into Georgia’s game on Saturday against Kentucky, the timing seemed perfect to pull the plug on Stetson Bennett at quarterback. Bennett, of course, ended up at QB almost by default, after a series of unfortunate events: starter Jamie Newman backed out just weeks before the start of the season due to COVID-related concerns; USC transfer JT Daniels was not cleared to start the season due to recovery from knee surgery; true freshman and heralded recruit Carson Beck was apparently not good enough to play for the Dawgs. With those three options off the table, Ohio State transfer D’Wan Mathis was named the starter for the season opener against Arkansas, with Bennett as his backup. Mathis helmed the first six possessions, couldn’t produce anything worth remembering, and then Bennett trotted on and the UGA offense started moving.
Since then, Stetson Bennett has been UGA’s starting quarterback. Bennett is the epitome of solid, not spectacular. He’s slight—listed at 5-11, 190, but almost certainly smaller—and doesn’t try to make plays that aren’t there. He also has had trouble throwing the ball over taller defensive lines—Alabama and Kentucky tipped at least six passes—and has thrown 7 TDs against 5 INTs in UGA’s first five games, of which they’ve won four. When UGA had the ball on the Kentucky 40 yard line just before the half, the play-by-play announcer wondered aloud if Bennett had the arm to reach the end zone—a 40 yard pass! Despite all that, Bennett has the Dawgs at 4-1 after 5 games.
Now, you may think being 4-1 in the best college football conference in the world, with your lone loss coming against the best team in college football (Alabama), is a pretty great place to be. And make no mistake, it is! Stetson Bennett has done a good job—nobody is arguing that.
The issue is that if you want to be an elite team in college football, you need players who can do great jobs. Which is where things get tricky.
Despite having an off week leading into the game on Saturday—creating a two-week break to give Daniels or Mathis time to work with the first team offense in practice—Smart didn’t make a change. He felt the lineup they had was the best lineup he could run out there. And Bennett came out against an average Kentucky team and threw for just 131 yards and got picked twice, once on—you guessed it—a tipped pass. Georgia won the game, but I’m not sure they can win the war with Stetson Bennett at QB.
The thing is, if you’re a UGA fan, you’ve seen this movie before, and you already know how it ends. A few years back, UGA QB Jacob Eason went down with an injury, and was replaced by the unheralded Jake Fromm. Fromm was really good—he got UGA to a National Championship game and a couple of SEC title games. But Fromm wasn’t great—UGA could never win the biggest game.
Obviously, it isn’t only about the quarterback—it’s on the defense and the skill position players and the coordinators and, eventually, it trickles on up to Kirby Smart. Because Smart decided Fromm was the guy to take UGA all the way. And with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that he wasn’t. You can’t blame Fromm for doing his best. His back-up, Justin Fields, didn’t want to sit and wait, and he bounced to Ohio State and has been great.
QB1 isn’t the only position that matters, of course, but I think it matters more than any other position. We know Clemson has the right QB, and apparently the right guy waiting in the wings, based on what we saw last weekend. Alabama and Ohio State are set. Florida finally found the right quarterback, but may have the wrong coach. At Auburn and LSU and South Carolina and elsewhere around the South, the debate can rage.
Closer to home, is Brady White the right guy to reach greatness here in Memphis? It seems like it may depend on which week you ask the question. Maybe, like Fields, White is the right guy, but he’s just in the wrong place? Maybe the problems are over White’s head, or maybe White is just in an untenable spot, with so many skill teammates out right now.
So much of success in life comes down to being in the right place at the right time, and then taking advantage of that chance. The old saying goes that luck is when preparation meets opportunity, although I’m not sure how that accounts for people hitting the lottery. Still, the sentiment is that you do the work so that if you do get that break, so if life hangs you a curveball, you can hit it out of the park.
And if life grooves a fastball and you hit it off the wall for a triple? That’s good, too!
But if you want to be a champion? It takes a little greatness.