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I am with PerroGrande on this one. Bennett was like an elusive cat many times during his tenure. He was not only quick but also had the capability and good sense of when to turn it up field and score as few QBs are able to these days; He would fake DBs out of their knee socks time and again and saunter into the EZ. I really enjoyed watching him run. My concern is with Beck being able to escape pressure. He can move out of the pocket but is not an accomplished runner like SB was. Brock and Gunner can both hoof it pretty well but may still lack the poise and confidence in a game situation. I have to admit, I have always liked Brock. All three need game reps. Spring GA game may expose a clear winner at QB but I doubt it. Coach Monken is adept at developing what he has to work with. A master at it.
Mike didn't say that "Replace Unique Talent" didn't apply to QB. He just used a pass-catching RB and a giant unicorn TE as the examples of that challenge.
QB is certainly one of the areas where we'll have to replace a unique talent. No doubt: SBIV is unique in a lot of ways! At the same time, we've definitely got a lot of talent in the QB room. It's not outrageous to say that one of those three guys could turn out to be just as good a Georgia QB -- or even better -- but in a different way.
I'm not so worried about pass catching from the RB position because: 1) We've got lots of receiving weapons at WR and TE, and Monken (there's that name again!) is amazing at devising schemes that fit the talent we have, and 2) Milton actually is a pretty good receiver, too.
At TE, you just can't replace Darnell. Duce Robinson may come closest (just in terms of size combined with skills), so it'll be great if we get him but he'll be a freshman. But again, Monken's creativity will make the most out of the enormous talent we have in the TE room, whether Duce is there or not.
Maybe, it's not so much that we can replace unique talent as much as find other kinds of talents to make up for the talents lost. Beck/Vandagriff/Stockton won't replace Bennett, but could be just as good in other ways. Delp/Robinson can't replace Darnell, but we'll utilize them in different schems.
Mike did leave out what, to me, seems the biggest offensive question mark: Tackles! Jones and McLendon were fantastic bookends to the OL. We have several good options. But we'll be exceedingly lucky if we get so much production out of the new tackles while also as few mistakes as they had.
This is the whole point behind why the argument of whether starting Stetson in 2021 over Daniels after he was healthy is a pointless debate. Absent knowing what Daniels would have done, we will only know starting Bennett wasn't the wrong answer. For all anyone knows, Daniels could have led us to 15-0 last year, stayed, and did it again this year. We simply don't and can't know what would have happened and anyone using actual results to argue against theoretical results is not living in reality and is not worth arguing with.
None of this is a knock on Bennett - he actually did start and did lead the team to winning both titles, something none of the other QB can claim, and for most of the time, he looked good doing it. No other QB is held to standards like Bennett, so I am not faulting him for having bad games. I am simply pointing out that because he won a title in 2021 and again in 2022 does not mean he was the only answer over the past 2 seasons that lead to the same end result. The coaches made a calculated decision that he provided them the best opportunity. They never said the "only" opportunity. What we do know is UGA seems to believe they have their man (or men) at QB on the roster because we haven't seemingly gone after QB transfers this year like we did last year (are we sure the staff was so sold on SBIV starting this year??). So based on us not going fish, I think the staff feels QB is more settled than the fanbase does, especially the SBIV always and forever crowd.