Tag: uga quarterback

Stetson Bennett announced as Georgia’s starting QB vs UAB

Stetson Bennett announced as starting QB

With JT Daniels nursing a minor oblique injury, Georgia will turn to a former starter to lead the Dawgs on Saturday against UAB.

UGA announced that Stetson Bennett will start at quarterback rather than redshirt freshman Carson Beck, who many expected to get the nod.

Bennett started five games for the Dawgs in 2020. Bennett had some up and down performances. He was a steadying presence in Georgia’s season opener against Arkansas.

Last year, Bennett completed 55% of his passes. Bennett contributed 10 total touchdowns and threw six interceptions. He threw for 1,179 passing yards on the season and looked particularly sharp against the Auburn Tigers.

Bennett arrived in Athens as a lightly recruited three-star prospect. He redshirted in 2017, while playing scout team quarterback. He then transferred to Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi. He helped Jones County win their conference, scoring 20 total touchdowns and accumulating almost 2,000 total yards in the process.

Following his junior college season, Bennett transferred back to the University of Georgia and enrolled for the spring semester of 2019.

JT Daniels not starting for UGA football

Georgia Bulldogs quarterback JT Daniels is not expected to start today against the UAB Blazers

Georgia Bulldogs quarterback JT Daniels is not expected to start today against the UAB Blazers. Daniels has been dealing with a core injury.

In his place, Carson Beck has been getting some of the reps with the starting offense. Stetson Bennett is another proven back up the Bulldogs may utilize. Will the Dawgs start Beck or Bennett?

Georgia additionally could still play Daniels, but he is not expected to start. Daniels is suffered from an oblique injury and still got some starting reps this week in practice.

Fortunately for the Dawgs, Georgia is still expected to defeat UAB with relative ease regardless of who starts at quarterback. UAB are the defending Conference USA champions, so they are expected to put up a fight.

Georgia QB Matthew Stafford made his first career start in the last game between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) Blazers at Sanford Stadium. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

No. 2-ranked Georgia is coming off a big-time win over the previously No. 3-ranked Clemson Tigers last week. Kirby Smart and Georgia will look to avoid a letdown against UAB.

The Bulldogs could roll with experience in Stetson Bennett if Carson Beck struggles. The UGA quarterback situation should be viewed as fluid for the UAB game. Freshman Brock Vandagriff additionally could make his college debut in the second half.

Georgia will have a more explosive offensive attack against UAB and that will start with the running game. The Blazers will look to stop the Georgia run game. Georgia is returning to a full-capacity Sanford Stadium for the first time since Nov. 2019.

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Kirby Smart, this is getting old. Make the change at QB.

Georgia football HC Kirby Smart needs to make the change.

Before my DMs fill up, let me say that I am a huge Kirby Smart fan. This post is not my way of saying we should fire Kirby. If we fire Kirby, we are screwed. Plain and simple.

But that’s enough being nice on a night like this.

Kirby, what are you doing, dude? Nobody will think any less of you as a man if you admit your mistake and pull Stetson Bennett.

Is that what you’re worried about? Because I honestly cannot think of any reason why Bennett is still the starting quarterback for the University of Georgia.

I get that maybe D’Wan Mathis just isn’t any good. But neither is Bennett.

If it’s true that Mathis really is just a not-great quarterback, Kirby has nothing to lose and everything to gain. We’re already not going to the SEC Championship Game. We already know Bennett isn’t the answer.

So play Mathis; and when he stinks you can say ‘I told you so.’

What about Daniels?

This brings up the JT Daniels question. If he’s healthy enough to play, there’s absolutely no reason he should not be in at quarterback. If he’s not healthy enough, you should probably say that so we stop scratching our head wondering why our coach can’t make the right decision yet again.

You made the wrong decision when it came to Jacob Eason. You were beyond wrong when it came to Justin Fields. And we don’t know if you’re wrong yet about JT Daniels or D’Wan Mathis, but until you prove us wrong, we’re going to wonder what the heck you’re doing.

But you know who else is going to wonder if the Georgia head coach has any clue what to do when it comes to the quarterback position?

Yep. Recruits. Kirby’s done a great job of reeling in these 4 and 5-star quarterback recruits so far, but that will end soon if he does not get it together.

Georgia QB Stetson Bennett goes to locker room. Who’s next?

Georgia football QB Stetson Bennett left for the locker room in the first quarter of UGA vs Florida. Who replaced him?

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett left for the locker room in the first quarter of the game against Florida.

It looks like an injury to Bennett’s right shoulder. He took a huge shot on his touchdown pass he made to Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint.

Taking his place is D’Wan Mathis, who opened the season as the UGA starter before pulled for Bennett against Arkansas.

Bennett’s start to the game was pretty consistent with his play as of late. No turnovers, but some missed passes and a dropped snap that killed his final drive.

Paul Finebaum on Georgia-Florida: ‘Very dangerous game for Kirby Smart’

Paul Finebaum discusses the Georgia-Florida game and how there is a lot of pressure on UGA football HC Kirby Smart to win it.

It’s Georgia-Florida day, and the No. 5 ranked Dawgs are looking to make it four in a row over the No. 8 Gators in Jacksonville.

For both sides, this is an SEC Championship play-in game. The loser of this matchup will have two losses on its record.

Georgia, though favored and ranked higher, is actually viewed as an underdog in the eyes of many for this one. A lackluster offense and a banged up defense have created a lot of doubt about UGA’s chances of winning.

Related: Five reasons Georgia will win

Related: Five reasons Georgia could lose

While on ESPN’s First Take this week, Paul Finebaum discussed the challenges that UGA and Kirby Smart face for the Cocktail Party, in addition to speaking on Georgia’s unfortunate quarterback situation.

“This is a precarious game for Georgia,” Finebaum said. “They’ve only lost to Alabama, they led at halftime, got blown out in the second half. They had an uninspiring game last week against Kentucky, only scoring 14 points. And if they lose this game, there are going to be a lot of people who go back into the history books of two years ago and start asking the question to Kirby Smart, ‘How did you let Justin Fields get away?’”

We know the story. Fields transferred to Ohio State after one year at Georgia. Now he’s a Heisman contender. Then Jamie Newman transferred to Georgia from Wake Forest, but we never got to see him in red and black as he opted out in the preseason.

Now, it’s all on Stetson Bennett’s shoulders. A former JUCO star, Bennett has struggled during the 2020 season, and he’ll need to clean it up today and limit turnovers if UGA wants to keep with Florida’s offense.

“They’re severely challenged,” Finebaum said. “And as I say that, Florida has one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Kyle Trask. … So this is a very dangerous game for Kirby Smart.”

Former Georgia WR JJ Holloman shares awesome DM he got from Stetson Bennett in 2016

Former Georgia football WR Jeremiah Holloman shared a really cool DM he got from UGA QB Stetson Bennett back in 2016.

Stetson Bennett has overcome a ton of obstacles en route to becoming Georgia’s starting quarterback in 2020.

Rewind years before he was leading a Bulldog team to a victory over Auburn, Bennett was once a 2-star recruit out of Pierce County High School in Blackshear, Georgia.

He wound up walking on at UGA in 2017. After redshirting, he transferred to Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi. And then he came back and sat behind Jake Fromm for another year. Now, he’s the starter on the No. 3 ranked Georgia team that just took down then-ranked No. 7 Auburn.

Former Georgia wide receiver Jeremiah Holloman took to Twitter after Georgia’s beatdown of Auburn to share a really cool message he received from Bennett when they both in high school in 2016. Bennett had messaged Holloman, who was a highly-ranked 4-star recruit out of Convington, for contact info for a member of the Auburn coaching staff. Bennett was preparing to go to an Auburn camp and “just wanted someone to know” that he’d be in attendance.

Bennett completed 17/28 passes for 240 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions during Georgia’s 26-7 victory over the Tigers.

As Holloman said on Twitter – “I think they know you now.”

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Georgia football addition of Jamie Newman among CFB’s 5 biggest summer storylines

Georgia football adding Jamie Newman is one of the leading storylines heading into the 2020 CFB season, as well coronavirus.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to find a college football storyline bigger than what’s going on at the moment.

Will we even have a 2020 college football season? Will there be fans if we do? How will recruiting be impacted? Will we have to push back National Signing Day? What about future player eligibility? Will the financial impact be too much to overcome?

Coronavirus will be at the center of college football storylines up until we kickoff the 2020 season (fingers crossed).

However, there’s only so much coronavirus that we can discuss before we drive ourselves crazy, if it’s not already too late.

That’s why I give props to Saturday Blitz, a Fansided college football website. Jake Mitchell wrote a story titled ‘College Football: 5 biggest storylines to follow during summer 2020,’ and did a nice job of talking about things other than the obvious – coronavirus.

Of course he had to make mention to the pandemic that is putting the season in jeopardy, but he touched on some of the storylines that would be front-page news if COVID-19 never came about.

In ranking his top-five storylines, how Jamie Newman will perform during his lone season at Georgia made the list.

Is Jamie Newman the Guy in Athens? — That’s what Mitchell ranked as the fourth biggest storyline heading into the 2020 season.

Right now there’s obviously no way of answering that, but after seeing Jake Fromm’s unexpected struggles in 2019, Georgia fans are hopeful that the offense can’t get any worse.

Newman is a dual-threat quarterback transfer from Wake Forest. He’s already receiving Heisman-hype and is considered one of college football’s top returning passers this year.

Mitchell wrote:

There’s never been a question about talent during Smart’s tenure in Athens. The thing that’s held the Bulldogs back has been an offense that stalls frequently and the lack of a quarterback who has the ability to make things happen on his own when these stalls occur. Fromm is a fine player, but he wasn’t that guy.

The one thing that will make this hard for Newman will be the shadow that hangs over him. Georgia already had the dynamic quarterback that could make things happen himself, and his name was Justin Fields. Smart chose Fromm, and Fields left for Ohio State.

Georgia football QB Jamie Newman hits trick pass on Tik Tok

New Georgia football transfer QB Jamie Newman from Wake Forest throws trick shot on Tik Tok during quarantine.

Saturday, Georgia quarterback Jamie Newman posted a video on Tik Tok showing what he is up to during quarantine.

The Wake Forrest transfer showcased some incredible touch with a trick pass into a pool-side basketball goal from distance and followed it up with a quote inspiring Dawg Nation to keep the faith.

As a junior at Wake Forest, Newman graded as the third best quarterback, according to PFF, behind Georgia transfer Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence

He finished last year with 2,868 yards passing, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions to go along with 574 yards rushing and six touchdowns.

The statistics point to Newman being a star in Athens, but Bulldog fans are anxious to see if Newman can lead Georgia to a potential 2020 CFP birth.

Let’s hope the 2020 season will be as smooth as Neman’s Tik Tok game…