NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The NCAA Football season begins with players and teams vying for a National Championship. Along the way, individual players begin to stand out from others with their play on the field, then comes the individual accolades. For QB, Stetson Bennett, his time to shine is now in more ways than one.
Last season, the Georgia Bulldogs won the Championship with Stetson Bennett at the helm and he’s looking to go back-to-back in 2022. It won’t be easy but if anyone has the moxy to do it, it’s this Georgia native.
In 2022, Bennett passed for 3425 yards and 20 TDs while completing 67.9 percent of his passes. The 20 TDs don’t necessarily scream Heisman but it’s his leadership that does most of the talking. In this day and age, for a player to lead a team to the CFB Playoffs in back-to-back seasons and a record of 27-1, that says a lot about a player’s character and skill set. Bennett is a bonafide stud in the field.
Think of all the pressure a top QB has to face weekly while leading a winning team. Bennett has looked adversity in the face and has done nothing but smiled and won. This is what a true definition of a winner is. But is that enough to sway the Heisman voters?
Stenson Bennett is a Georgia kid all the way through. Born and raised in Georgia, Bennett would go on to lead Pierce County High School to three straight State Playoff appearances. His numbers were not ground-breaking and because of that, he wasn’t offered many scholarships. In fact, the only FBS school to offer him one was Middle Tennessee state.
Stetson Bennett Has Earned His Seat
Bennett decided to stay home and chose the University of Georgia but did so as a walk-on. Needless to say, things didn’t go his way his freshman year thanks to Justin fields committing to Georgia. Stetson Bennett decided it was time to move on and transferred to Jones County Junior College. But then Fields left for Ohio State University and Bennett decided it was time to come back.
In 2019, Stetson Bennett became the backup to Jake Fromm and thus began his journey to becoming a champion and a Heisman finalist. However, after from left, the drama was not over. Bennett still has to wait his turn to take over as he was still behind D’Wan Mathis, Jamie Newman, and JT Daniels. But as things began to shake out, the last man left standing in the trenches would be Bennett. And as they say, the rest of history.
But looking over his story, we can see what Kirby Smart and the rest of the Bulldog faithful see now. Bennett is a warrior. He could have easily taken a scholarship somewhere else and found an offense that may have been better suited to his talents. But he wanted to be home. He wanted to play for the team he has known his entire life.
For Bennett, being named a finalist is just icing on the cake of a career that many believed should not have happened or a career that many would have given up on. But this is not how Stetson Bennett was raised and as we see on the field every Saturday, this is not how he plays the game either. He wants to win and nothing will stand in his way.
