“Just keep fighting. Keep your mouth shut. Work hard. Life is tough, you just have to fight through it” .
Stetson Bennett after winning the 2022 National Championship with the Georgia Bulldogs
- The images above were taken from USA Today and Sports Illustrated
Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. This is a fact, an objective statement in reality which cannot be altered. However, every structure of the story does not dictate the content within it. There are always twists, turns, unexpected occurrences, and setbacks. However, your ability to rise above external circumstances and maximize one’s potential deserves nothing but the utmost praise and respect. This is exactly what Stetson Bennett did last night, against TCU. Not only did Bennett throw for 304 yards and four touchdowns, but he also rushed for two touchdowns and secured his second national championship, beating TCU 65-7 when it was all said and done.
With the national championship in the rearview mirror, Bennett places himself among some of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time and is most certainly the best quarterback the Georgia Bulldogs have ever come across. From Georgia to JUCO, and then finally back to Georgia as a national champion, Bennett’s path has been anything but linear. It makes you wonder how Bennett got to this point. For that, we must start at the beginning of Bennett’s college football career.
Year one: Stepping into Athens
- The image above was taken from totalgeorgiabulldogs.com
Coming out of high school, Bennett was a 2-star recruit after putting up a stat line of over 3,000 yards and almost 40 touchdowns in his senior season. Many top-D1 recruits saw him as an afterthought, due to his size and weight. With these harsh characteristics in mind, Bennett had to think on his feet. When going to recruiting camps, it was rumored that Stetson Bennett wore a postal hat in order to attract attention, giving himself the “mailman” nickname. Taking everything into account, he decided to attend the University of Georgia as a walk-on recruit in 2017, hoping to fight for a spot in the starting lineup.
- The images above were taken from southernprose.com and 247sports.com
However, things weren’t looking so hot for Bennett when looking at his competition on the depth chart. With future NFL Quarterback Jacob Eason being the starter for the majority of the 2017-18 season, and current Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields giving him a tough shot at the position, Bennett ended up with minimal playing time and had to make a tough decision. Bennett ended up red-shirting his freshman season and received no playing time, leaving him no choice but to transfer out of Athens and into the junior college system.
Year two: JUCO Bounceback
- The image above was taken from magnoliastatelive.com
In order to jumpstart his college career, Stetson Bennett decided to attend Jones County Junior College, located in Ellisville, Mississippi. The Junior college system for both football and basketball is only meant for the toughest and bravest. If you’ve watched the hit Netflix show Last Chance U, you already have the schema of what it’s like to endure a season in JUCO. In just one season, Bennett played 12 games and threw for 1800 yards and 16 Touchdowns as a starter for the Bobcats. This gave Georgia enough confidence to call him back to the squad and offer him a scholarship once he would enter the transfer portal. Bennett and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart are known for having a close relationship, and many believe that Bennett coming back to Georgia was a sign that Smart believed in him before the fans ever did. We didn’t know it back then, but this was the start of Stetson Bennett’s rise to glory.
Year three to Year Five: Playing within the System
- The images above were taken from DawgNation and Reddit
After Bennett had returned to Sanford Stadium, he was once again stuck beneath several starting QBs on the depth chart. However, before Bennett became the eventual starter, his first major appearance was in the 2019 SEC championship game, when Jake Fromm, the starting quarterback at the time, went down with an injury. Bennett would continue to be a backup to quarterbacks, like JT Daniels, Jamie Newman, and D’Wan Mathis, until the back end of the 2021 College football season. In his first short season as a Georgia Bulldog, Bennett ended up throwing for almost 2,900 yards, but had seven interceptions to his name erasing the progress that he had worked hard for that season. His most notable error was against Alabama in the 2021 SEC championship game, which ended in a heartbreaking 41-24 defeat. However, Bennett would catch a break and lead the Dawgs to their first national championship since 1980, taking revenge against Alabama, winning 33-18, once the dust had settled.
Year Six: Tuning out the noise
- The image above was taken from FantasyPros
Many people thought that Georgia could not go back-to-back after their stellar performance in the 2021-22 season. Many people said that this year was a time to rebuild the squad under Kriby Smart’s philosophy, since half the players from the 2021 National Championship game had gone on to the NFL, such as Travon Walker, Jordan Davis, Quay Walker, and Nakobe Dean. Many people said that Stetson Bennett was too old to lead a college team to the championship once, let alone twice because it had only been accomplished a couple of times under very extraordinary circumstances to say the least.
The Georgia Bulldogs listened. Every comment, every criticism, every setback, was used as fuel to propel themselves into the National Championship. An undefeated regular season, followed by a tense game against Ohio State on New Year’s Eve, ending in a one-point victory because of a missed field goal, all led up to January 9th, 2023. They said that it was impossible.
This goes to show you that you can do anything you put your mind to. Stetson Bennett is the prime example of how hard work beats talent. From college scouts calling him short, saying that he would never start in college football, to lifting two trophies within the span of two years, you cannot hate this man’s story.
So, what’s the takeaway from all of this? Well, Stetson Bennett should inspire you. He should inspire you to never give up on the grind, trust the process of failure and heartbreak, and always persevere until you see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the definition of an underDAWG.
Thanks for reading. Go Dawgs.
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