JT Daniels, who has been the third string quarterback all season, made his Georgia debut on Saturday night against Mississippi State and absolutely lit it up.
The former 5-star passer went 28/38 for 401 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions while connecting with George Pickens and Jermaine Burton a combined 16 times for 284 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Now, it is important to remember that Daniels was coming off of a torn ACL, and neither the coaching staff or Daniels gave us any insight into his status health-wise throughout the season.
But after the game, Daniels provided some interesting quotes that make you wonder, if his knee really was good to go, what was Kirby Smart thinking all season?
Daniels said that he was not cleared to play for the Arkansas game, but after that it’s been the coach’s decision to leave him on the bench since.
He did, however, follow it up by saying he has progressed since then and has gained more strength in his knee.
JT, more: "I felt like after the Arkansas that I was ready to go and play football. I will say I've progressed a long way since then. We've still been working on getting strength back."
— Brandon Sudge (@brandonsudge) November 22, 2020
This sounds to me like JT wanted to play all season, but Smart decided to err on the side of caution in an effort to not risk any more damage to his knee.
Daniels also praised his wideouts Burton and Pickens.
JT Daniels đź’¬ "If you have Jermaine Burton and George Pickens, don't recruit them if you aren't going to throw to them. If you give me one-on-one with them, I am going to make sure you can stop it."
— 960 The Ref (@960theref) November 22, 2020
It’s obvious that Daniels is a huge upgrade over both Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis. Actually, offensive coordinator Todd Monken has been calling plays that have consistently gotten the UGA receivers wide open deep  multiple times, but neither Bennett or Mathis had the accuracy to hit them. Take the Florida game for example, Kearis Jackson, Demetris Robertson and Burton were wide open deep multiple times each, and both quarterbacks failed to connect numerous times. With Daniels in, I think Georgia would have won that game.
When asked about his decision-making when it comes to the quarterback position, Smart got defensive and said the following:
“But I also think people need to take into consideration that I’ve been coaching football for I don’t know how many years, 20 or 25 years and God knows (offensive coordinator Todd) Monken has probably doubled me as old as he is. There’s not a decision that we make as coaches, as a coaching staff, as an offensive coaching staff, five guys that I adore and think the world of … maybe the question should be, man, aren’t they glad they’ve got JT here, when nobody thought that maybe they needed him.
Would I have loved him to go out and do that same thing to other teams? Absolutely. But the decisions were made on who we felt gave us the best opportunity to win, and a lot of that had to do with mobility and Stetson’s play,” Smart said. “As Stet struggled, we had to look for other options. He did a great job with his opportunity, he also had some help in receivers that came back and how Mississippi State played them. I don’t want to use that to demean how he played. He played unbelievable. I’m as proud as hell for the way he played. But every decision we make is who gives us the best opportunity to win the game and the men in that room who are making those decisions, they’ve got a lot of experience doing it.”