Georgia spent a lot of December defending Stetson Bennett’s standing as its beginning quarterback. Then he powered by means of the Orange Bowl in opposition to Michigan, finishing two-thirds of his passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns.
But there was an uglier outing in December — and it was in opposition to Alabama. In that sport, Bennett went 29 for 48. He threw three touchdowns, but additionally two interceptions.
Monday may provide one other dose of redemption and possibly a little bit of revenge, too. (Bennett was additionally the quarterback when Georgia misplaced at Alabama in 2020. He accomplished lower than half of his passes that night time in Tuscaloosa.)
“I thought I played all right in the SEC championship game,” Bennett stated final week. “I made a few mistakes that you can’t do against a good team. But I also made some really good throws, good decisions. So my main focus going into the Michigan game was cleaning up on the mistakes and keep doing what I had been doing well.”
And to loads of observers inside faculty soccer, if not all the time everybody on Twitter, Bennett does loads of issues nicely.
“I don’t think people realize how athletic Stetson Bennett is at quarterback,” stated Shane Beamer, South Carolina’s coach, who recalled how Bennett was the scout group quarterback when he was an assistant at Georgia below Kirby Smart.
“I can remember Kirby coming into the staff meeting every day about this freshman Stetson Bennett and how they can’t stop him,” Beamer stated.
Across three seasons on the sector at Georgia, Bennett has logged 4,077 passing yards, together with greater than 2,600 this season, when he began 11 video games.
Alabama has signaled it’s not significantly nervous about how typically Bennett has seen its protection lately.
“I think you’re trying to make him make the decision of what coverage it is, what front is it, what pressure is it once he’s got the ball in his hand,” stated Pete Golding, the Alabama defensive coordinator. “I think the key is, in a pre-snap read, he thinks he’s getting this look and then the ball turns over now and it’s a different coverage or it’s a different pressure, it’s a different front. And now he’s got to think.”
Not that Alabama is overlooking him.
“He really takes over on the offensive side,” stated Will Anderson Jr., a Crimson Tide linebacker who was named this season’s greatest defensive participant. “His ability to move out of the pocket, I think that’s one of his biggest and strongest abilities he has. He can extend plays with his arms as well. But we just have to contain him. I think that’s the biggest part of his game is his legs and him running all around the field. We just have to contain him in the pocket and make sure he’s not running all over the field on us and stuff like that.”
