{"id":181804,"date":"2023-01-09T18:07:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/stetson-bennett-iv-is-holding-on-for-one-more-title\/"},"modified":"2023-01-09T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T18:07:11","slug":"stetson-bennett-iv-is-holding-on-for-one-more-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/stetson-bennett-iv-is-holding-on-for-one-more-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Stetson Bennett IV Is Holding On for One More Title"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nobody expected Stetson Bennett IV to win the position battle. Even his teammates were skeptical that he could get the job done. But Bennett believed in himself, and now Georgia is in the national championship game because of it.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I’m not talking about Kirby Smart’s decision in 2021 to make the former walk-on Georgia’s starting quarterback, with Bennett helping lead Georgia to a national championship. I’m talking about the decision this<\/em> offseason to make Bennett, already a Georgia legend, the holder on the field goal unit. \u201cHe’s really bought in to his role as holder,\u201d says long snapper Payne Walker, about the Heisman finalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cPod didn’t want me there for a little bit,\u201d Bennett says, referring to Georgia kicker Jack Podlesny, who described Bennett’s assessment as \u201caccurate.\u201d \u201cIt’s had its ups and downs,\u201d says Podlesny of the kicker-holder relationship. <\/p>\n

They’re joking, or at least I think they are. But Bennett knew he could execute at the highest level\u2014mainly because he does not think holding is very difficult. \u201cI was, like, dude, I could catch that ball. That’s all you do.\u201d When I asked him about it, he mimed out catching a ball and putting it down to show how easy it is. <\/p>\n

On virtually every other college football team (and all 32 NFL teams), the holder is the punter. Watch all the biggest kicks of the 2022 season\u2014TCU’s fire-drill game-winner against Baylor; Army’s double-OT field goal against Navy; Tennessee’s wobbler to beat Alabama; the Ohio State miss that sent Georgia to the national championship game\u2014and you will see punters holding. The tongue-in-cheek award given to the nation’s \u201cbest holder\u201d (it’s mainly an excuse to give money to charity) is named after former Minnesota punter Peter Mortell. <\/p>\n

In 2020 and 2021, Georgia had all-SEC punter Jake Camarda on holds. But he went to the NFL this year, leaving a void. Smart decided to put his starting QB into the role. \u201cWe don’t have holder tryouts,\u201d Smart said in September. And apparently, his kicker did n’t have veto power. <\/p>\n

And so when Bennett throws a touchdown in Monday night’s national championship game, he won’t head to the sideline like almost every other QB in college football. He’ll stay on the field and hold the extra point, turning six into seven. Incidentally, 2022 was the sixth season of Bennett’s college career; 2023 is somewhat of an extra point. <\/p>\n

Bennett is a throwback college quarterback, very much in line with the college football tradition of the unspectacular QB on a roster filled with studs, following in the footsteps of the Greg McElroys and the Ken Dorseys of the world. Georgia’s championship team last year featured five defensive players who were picked in the first round of the NFL draft, plus running back James Cook and wide receiver George Pickens going in Round 2. This Georgia team has two future NFL stars at tight end, Darnell Washington and Brock Bowers. <\/p>\n

Before Georgia’s recent run, the game manager QB seemed to have disappeared from college football’s top contenders. From 2017 to 2021, five straight national titles were won by future first-round NFL draft picks\u2014Deshaun Watson, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, and Mac Jones. Four of those were blue chip recruits as well. (We’re still figuring out the whole \u201cMac Jones\u201d thing.) Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney were telling us that in the current landscape of college football, you couldn’t win a title without a QB that facilitated a top-tier passing game.<\/p>\n

To be clear: Stetson Bennett will not be a first-round NFL draft pick. He is 5-foot-11 and 25 years old. That reads like a dating profile, not a draft bio. Players his age have already been drafted, busted, and moved on to their second, third, or seventh NFL teams. But Bennett has succeeded in ways Georgia’s top quarterback prospects have not. Last year, he won the job over five-star recruit JT Daniels, a transfer from USC, and was the quarterback when Georgia finally<\/em> beat Alabama. (It had been awhile.) And this year, Georgia is 14-0. Sometimes it seems like Bennett’s play holds Georgia back. But trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl semifinal against Ohio State, he started ripping beautiful pass after beautiful pass to win the Dawgs the game. <\/p>\n

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