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Comments
This isn't the first year with Smart. He follows a pretty clear pattern when it comes to QBs and that's the fact that he focuses on Practice and potentially other emotional aspects in terms of selection. He refuses to change QBs unless there is an injury and clearly can't evaluate QB talent.
So, other than having to replace a clearly not-going-to-cut-it Mathis (again, how did he win the job?) you get a lifetime starting gig until you are injured. There is NO situation (barring an injury) where Bennett doesn't start.
We all love Setson's story, walk on etc... He has saved our Bacon several times over the last two seasons, starting with the Arkansas game last year. But in the last two games with Alabama 2020 and 2021 Bennett has thrown 5 TD and 5 Int and a pick six. While Jones and Young combined for 7 TD and 1 Int. We scored no 2nd half points last year and only seven this year. Crimson Tide on the other hand have scored 21 and 17 2nd half points the last two games. We have been severely outplayed at the QB position. Alabama has scored 41 each of the last two games. Can we realistically hold them to 28?? I doubt it. Even if we do we still lose because we are only scoring 21 in the last two games. If Kirby sticks with Bennett and we are fortunate to play them again and lose, it will be a huge setback for him and the program because it shows he is unwilling to change. If you lose with Daniels then so be it. But alas it appears as if Kirby is about to make a mistake by staying with Bennett and falsely believing that he can beat Alabama 21-17
You would think oc would have a say in who starts? I can’t believe I am saying this but Tebow is right. UGA will not win without an elite qb. Bennett is not an elite qb, a good one mind you, but not elite. Is jt an elite qb, I do not know. If jt is some kind of trouble that we do not know, put vandergroff in their. He has eligibility to spend. I have said time and time again even when we won, we will not win the nc with Bennett. Smart has the worst evaluation on qbs I have ever seen in a coach.
I have a question and I’m not trying to be a smart a$$. Why didn’t you guys come totally unglued after the Clemson game when we only scored 3 offensive points and Bennett averaged around 4 yards per pass attempt? I’ve heard all the excuses like it was the first game, Clemson had all summer to prepare for us, Clemson has a great defense (eventhough they had lost several key starters on the D-line and secondary), we had receivers injured, etc? None of us had a clue that JT was possibly injured, but we all accepted one of the worst offensive games in recent UGA history. At the same time, several of you bash Bennett for playing light years better against the #1 team in the country. Also, MG paints a false picture of how great JT was last year. Everyone keeps referencing the Mississippi State game where we couldn’t run the ball and JT was the hero. Did y’all know that was a home game for our Dawgs against a lousy 3-7 MS team? Did you also know the other 2 regular season games for JT were against 5-5 and 2-8 teams? I’m not impressed and pretty confident Bennett would have beaten those teams and our run game would certainly have been better against MS. I’m seriously asking a fair question about our collective responses to the pitiful offensive performance in the Clemson game and why it was acceptable against the #19 team while Stetson’s performance against the #1 team is totally unacceptable to some of you guys.
Not sure what goes on in Smart's head but at this point, unless something changes, he will never win a NC.
?Do you think beck’s psych has recovered ?
Clemson had, and still does have a top 5 defense. And all summer to game plan! WHO CARES what the score is??? As long as the DAWGS are on top! I’d take a 3-2 win over a 41-24 beat down! The problem isn’t Stetson or JT. The problem is that nobody, including Kirby, will never know what the outcome would have been because he didn’t try JT. I’m not for or against either guy, and YES, everyone around them, including the entire team, has to play well around them! But to not change because of “that’s my guy”? Even the casual football fan knows something is up. Yeah Clemson is 19 now, but they were top 4 in September.
So if Kirby had started JT Saturday (assuming he is available and not injured or limited in some way) and JT got massacred and sacked multiple times……then some of you guys would be criticizing Kirby’s decision and offering a litany of excuses. It’s clear to me that Kirby is in a “no win” situation.
If Kirby starts JT against Michigan and he flops then Kirby is a goat for not playing Stetson. Some fans will be saying JT was “rusty”, “injured”, etc. The excuses will be non-stop. If Kirby starts Stetson and we lose then folks will be screaming bloody murder and asking why he didn’t play JT. If we win the game then some fans will be saying the QB who sat on the bench would have done better. In other words, Kirby can’t keep everyone happy which is clear on these DawgNation blogs. I sincerely believe he will make the correct decisions even if we don’t agree with them. Don’t forget, Kirby has more to lose than all of us combined. Besides, he is at every practice and knows what is really going on while we literally don’t have a clue. Go Dawgs!!!
And do you know this for fact or is it what you’ve been told?
……asking for a friend
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing that doesn't work, over and over again. Stetson has maxed out at 24 points twice against BAMA. Let's give him another shot you say. 5 td's and 5 INT's . Another 1 or 2 that should have been. Is that good enough? Against BAMA? Will that performance again get us over the hump?
SB is 1 and 3 against FLA and BAMA cumulative. HIs biggest games. His claim to fame is he beat a train wreck in FLa this year. But he was about to head into half-time with 3 points against FLA until the defense did what it did.
JT is 2-0 against basically the same Cincy team that is in the playoffs this year and against Clemson. Two really big games at the time. I know Clemson fell apart with their offense but at the time we played them their defense was no joke. Clemson just beat the mess out of South Carolina who beat Auburn the week before who gave BAMA all they could handle. Go figure.
No he started Stetson, that didn’t work. You don’t know just as the rest of us what would happen to Daniels because he didn’t get a chance, so that argument holds no water.
Of course everyone knew Jt wasn’t gonna start in the championship game.But not to even give him a chance when it was clear there was no chance with Stetson..come on. As well as not giving the guy much playing time at all during the season when he got healthy.
Good point .. now that u asked I’m gonna ask you .. did you really watch the throws that were or were not being made of Bennett.. there was only one throw I saw all year long that he threw the ball before the defender broke and that was a wheel route to bowers .. otherwise most guys were getting the ball wide open or had to make an excellent catch in coverage .. or worse the ball thrown in the dirt over there head or not to a wide open guy at all cuz he was locked onto a receiver .. you can’t have it both ways .we don’t no what jt could’ve done but I no what bennett did and didn’t do .. so if your defending and asking people questions maybe you should also watch the throws and non throws
Mike, I appreciated this article and found it to be well put-together. Then you seemed to veer off course a bit with this comment. I don't know about this report that was mentioned. The "dumb coach" line makes me skeptical, considering what the Daniels had to say about Smart after the 2020 season. But no, the explanation that you're presenting here is not such a "simple concept." I think this notion that Smart is simply playing favorites is pretty poorly reasoned, given what we know and don't know. Add to that the fact that just last year we saw JT Daniels mysteriously riding the bench much longer than expected, only to find out that he was still recovering after we all thought he was good to go. It's happened before, recently, with this same coach and quarterback, yet many look right past that and are ready to assume Smart is now deliberately going out of his way to avoid playing the guy we know he wanted to be the starter, for no good reason.
I don't claim to understand what's happening here; I'm as mystified as anyone. Clearly, being in a high profile position of power/responsibility does not make one immune to weird and/or ill-conceived decisions. But I think we can all agree that we haven't gotten a full explanation for Bennett starting over Daniels - at least, not one that rings true as a full, plausible explanation. And until we do, I think the most reasonable assumption is that Daniels isn't as healthy as Smart/doctors would like.
I expect that explanation will come after this team plays its final game. Either we'll hear that Daniels was injured; or we won't, and will have no choice at that point but to take Smart at his word and conclude that he stuck with Bennett despite all the reasons to go with a healthy Daniels instead. Who knows, maybe we'll even have a national championship when we get this long-awaited (relative) certainty. I'm not terribly confident that it'll happen with Bennett, but there's nothing left to do at this point except hope. Nobody's right about everything, eh? But either way, I'm almost as anxious to get this exit brief, of sorts, as I am for the playoff to get here. For better or for worse, they should both involve getting some real answers about what this team is and how it's being run.