There are rumblings that Stetson Bennett may be leaving Georgia. I’ve confirmed that he’s at least thinking about it…
UGASports.com reported Tuesday that Bennett met this week with coach Kirby Smart to advise him of his intent to transfer. Smart, as one would expect, tried to talk Bennett out of it and offered to put him on scholarship. That’s a significant gesture, considering how close the Bulldogs are to being maxed out on grants-in-aid.
Man, that is something. And Stetson’s parents didn’t even have to make a scene with the media to get Kirby to offer.
On a less snarky note, Towers also reports that Sam Vaughn is leaving the program. Things could be getting a wee bit thin at quarterback. Which would go a long way towards explaining that scholly offer…
Get The Picture 
You can see both sides of this. The kid knew what he was getting into or at least he thought he did. When you have an established Sophomore and then the Super Frosh… It’s one thing to read about it, it’s another to see it. The odd’s of finding the field are ‘low’. So it comes down to “do you want to be the 3rd string QB at UGA or the First String QB at Georgia State or Georgia Southern?
Personally… I would want to play.
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What’s his QBR?
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Some comments on that linked blog post…. did not age well.
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If it was me, if I had the talent to be in the position Stetson is in, and was a rising redshirt freshman, I’d stick it out at least for another year, especially after the scholarship offer. Being from his neck of the woods, I think the scholarship offer is more valuable as a gesture and a recognition of your hard work and ability by a guy like Kirby Smart. I have no inside information but his family has several going concerns in this area and so I doubt very strongly that he needs the money. This is about him wanting to play. To me personally I’d stick it out for a chance to run out there between the hedges and at least once play QB at GA even in mop duty. Especially considering how young he is. He can always transfer next year or the next and still have 2-3 years of eligibility. I hope the gesture is enough. The kid is small but I think this proves it hasn’t all been happy coach talk about Stetson, the kid can play. Too bad he wasn’t an option in 2015. We could have used him then.
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Guess Kirby doesn’t think he’s too small for the SEC, eh? Maybe he figures that talk wasn’t hyperbole concerning emulation of other QBs.
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With Vaughn’s departure, the math speaks for itself. This isn’t about Bennett being SEC-ready.
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So you think Kirby is fine with not having 3 SEC ready quarterbacks? I think the fact that Kirby, to this point, has not aggressively sought to bring in a transfer from somewhere else is a pretty solid indicator that he was happy with what he was getting out of Stetson as the third string guy. And Stetson is who got significant reps in the spring game, not Vaughn. Isn’t there another guy too? Madden or something? If either one of them got on the field in the spring game it wasn’t for long.
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This is supposed to be a compelling argument?
Smart is obsessed with roster management (that’s a compliment). With regard to Bennett’s scholly offer, do I think in light of Vaughn’s departure he’s more concerned about making sure he has enough competent quarterbacks in practice? You bet. Do I think he would prefer to have a third QB option in the event the two in front of Bennett go down with injuries? Certainly.
Do I think Bennett is SEC ready? I have no clue, and neither do you. Feel free to point out the last SEC QB with Bennett’s stature who succeeded on a regular basis, though.
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Joe Hamilton 5’10” at GT (not SEC) f**ked us up on the regular. My point is Vaughn is clearly behind Stetson on the depth chart, anytime you lose anyone it’s a concern depth wise obviously. I don’t know if Stetson is SEC ready, I don’t know if half the teams in our conference have a QB who is “SEC ready” at this point, I just think this is pretty damn good evidence Kirby thinks that Stetson is a capable third string quarterback, and he knows more than either of us.
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Had instant replay existed in 1998 and 1999, Joe Hamilton would have completed his career winless against Georgia. He would have had a lot of stats, though, that’s for sure.
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Yeah, we got hosed in both games no doubt, little sucker was good though, I’ll give him that.
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Yeah, he was definitely a great one.
For a nerd.
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On a side note, I’ve gone back and watched a lot of old UGA games this off-season since my Dawg fever is at all time high levels (since college at least), and of all our opponents, it’s amazing how bad Tech has fallen off athletically. Georgia’s always had the athlete advantage my whole life (I’m 40) but it used not to be so severe, they used to have better looking players, even in the Gailey era. As has been discussed on this blog a number of times, the Paul Johnson triple option is really killing their recruiting.
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He wasn’t a nerd … he couldn’t spell nerd.
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Hamilton was 5’10” and weighed 190 pounds. The only way Stetson sees 190 is if he picks up a 20-pound bag.
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As a senior, he put on more weight while at GT.
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Joe Hamilton was 20 years ago. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but college players have gotten considerably bigger and faster since then.
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Yes, I agree players as a whole have gotten bigger and faster in the 18 seasons that have elapsed since Joe Hamilton hung up his cleats, but the difference between then and now is not like the difference between say 2000 and 1970 was. Take a look at the height and weight of GA’s DL from 2000 (the year after Hamilton left, that’s as far back as my source website goes, but he played against all these guys) and last year, it’s not that great of a difference.
2000 UGA Top DL contributors
DT Richard Seymour 6’6’’, 300 lbs.
DT Marcus Stroud 6’6’’, 300 lbs.
DT Jonathan Sullivan 6’4’’, 304 lbs.
DE Josh Mallard 6’3’’, 261 lbs.
DE Bruce Adrine 6’4’’, 274 lbs.
DE Shedrick Wynn 6’3’’, 263 lbs.
2017 UGA Top DL contributors
DT Jon Atkins 6’4’’, 308 lbs.
DT Trenton Thompson, 6’4’’, 295 lbs.
DL Julian Rochester, 6’5’’, 300 lbs.
DL Tyler Clark 6’4, 305 lbs.
DE Jonathan Ledbetter 6’4’’, 277 lbs.
DE David Marshall, 6’3, 274 lbs.
I don’t keep a running tab of the measurables of all college football players in my head at all times but I do remember guys who lit us up. And Joe lit us up 3 years in a row, Seymour, Stroud, and Sullivan you may have heard of by the way, I think they may have played a few years in the NFL. Here’s my source website: https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/georgia-bulldogs-team-roster?season=2000
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Okay, you’ve convinced me — if Bennett played for Georgia Tech, he’d light Georgia’s defense up.
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LOL, I’m not saying I think Bennett is Joe Hamilton, I’m just saying I think Kirby obviously think’s he’s an adequate third string guy despite his stature.
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Oy. What makes you think I feel differently?
Remember you’re the one who started this off with “So you think Kirby is fine with not having 3 SEC ready quarterbacks?”. That’s different from saying Bennett has real value to his head coach right now as a 3rd-stringer.
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And that sentence was immediately followed up with “I think the fact that Kirby, to this point, has not aggressively sought to bring in a transfer from somewhere else is a pretty solid indicator that he was happy with what he was getting out of Stetson as the third string guy” so I think my meaning was clear right off the bat. You are the one who used the term “SEC ready”, I am frankly not even sure what that means, in any given year close to half of the QB’s in our conference don’t perform adequately. Quinton Dorminey and Jarrett Guantanamo at Tennessee weren’t worth a shit last year and they had to be “SEC ready” because apparently Tennessee had no one else to send out there ahead of them. It sounds to me like Kirby is comfortable with Stetson if, God forbid, he had to send him out there for meaningful snaps. If that’s the definition, yes it sounds like Kirby thinks he’s SEC ready. Does “SEC ready” mean dominate the game and play at a level that puts him in the top half of the league, then I’d guess he isn’t. Fromm has showed he can play at that level. Fields we all believe can, but we don’t KNOW that at this point. We don’t KNOW that about Stetson. I’ve been listening to coaches talk a long time about quarterbacks and other players, you could tell back in 2014 that our coaches were afraid they didn’t have anybody after Hutson Mason, and they were right. That’s why they ran off in the off-season and went and got a guy who was beat out for the starting job at Virginia. I think that, as you commented at the time also, reeked of desperation and the kind of situation the coaches thought we were in. I don’t get the sense here that Kirby is desperate for answers after Fromm and Fields, that’s what I meant in my first comment and have been saying. I don’t think Kirby just would have wasted a scholarship if Stetson was simply the next pulse off the bench.
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You are the one who used “SEC ready” FIRST, the above should read.
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If only you bothered to read the comment I responded to…
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The Senator is snarky this morning. 🙂
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He tries to be, but Brandon’s use of the Senator’s own words wasn’t replied to at all. “SEC-ready” was from a few days before and the Senator left his dick hanging out on the comeback. Kirby has stated the value of Stetson and he didn’t waffle about it like the Senator has when stating his expertise on size determining Stetson’s worth to UGA.
Let it go, Bluto. What makes your blog go is your being as wrong as the rest of us on most issues. I think you have guts to pick in the pool each year so that we may see your football reasoning foibles are just like most of us.
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Ah, the author of “Guess Kirby doesn’t think he’s too small for the SEC, eh?” is lecturing me on SEC-ready. You’ve certainly got chutzpah. Bonus points for returning to this a day after the discussion had concluded with the editorial advice to let it go.
As for my assessment of Bennett’s value to Kirby, you don’t have to go any farther than the last paragraph of my post,
… which, ironically enough, is also where Brandon wound up.
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Sometimes don’t get back to here for a day or two. In any case, ruffling your feathers after “editorial advice” was given was even better. Admiration from the players and his HC makes Stetson worth blogging about and I know that you will be the first one to cheer him on if he plays an SEC game for us.
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Amazing how it’s all about you. It doesn’t matter that you were a day away. The rest of us had moved on.
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A Georgia Tech QB from 20 years ago is your comparison?
That ought to tell you something about your case.
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See my comments below..
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Wasn’t scu’s Jake Bentley a walk-on? And Cory Phillips did a decent job for the Dawgs some years back, when we were forced to use him.
Non-scholly players like Bennett and Vaughn are vital to a program. If it were just about any other coach than Kirby, I’d wonder if he had a backup plan (pun intended). The scholly offer to Bennett shows Kirby would pull out all the stops to keep him – at least one more year. A last resort might be WRs/DBs who were QBs in HS, like Godwin, Hardman, or Bishop.
UGA is very fortunate to have the Hope scholly as a recruiting tool for in-state preferred walk-ons. Is there any doubt Kirby’s got a list of potential QBs he’s checking right now?
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Bentley was a top 100 recruit. He didn’t walk on at SC.
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Give Vaughn the scholly..
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I can’t blame a guy for wanting to actually play as opposed to being a scout team quarterback hoping for blowouts so he can hand off a few times in the fourth quarter on Saturdays. I really can’t. But this story really just makes me wonder why Stetson Bennett is in Athens to begin with. Did he think he was going to come to town as a walk-on and beat out Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm, et al? Measurables matter less in college than the NFL, but they still matter quite a bit in the SEC. I wish him the best if he leaves, and I’m sure he’ll find a smaller program where he can play ball. But I’m just kinda shaking my head.
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Good question and only he knows. Maybe he thought he could be Baker Mayfield, maybe he thought he just wanted to be part of the program and surprised himself.
What we do know is he has turned heads, how many scout team QBs have you heard about after a SEC championship or national title game? I would be surprised if he started in the SEC but he could have a fun few years at a mid major. I wish him the best and think he helps UGA greatly but can’t blame the kid for wanting an entire fan base see him get a W.
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Same thing I thought, and I think I said it in a post on the matter last week. Wish him the best but question his decision making if he wasn’t prepared to be a scout team QB for the duration of his stay in Athens.
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It’ll be interesting to see if Bennett leaving the program has any effect on how we use Fields this year. With only two legitimate QBs on the roster, could Kirby be a little more hesitant about running Fields out there in certain packages knowing there’s no one behind him? From everything Kirby said about Bennett, it sounded like he viewed him as a very capable third guy, and the scholarship offer indicates he wasn’t just blowing smoke.
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175 LBs QBs can start games, it’s the finishing games that’s the issue.
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Sounds like we need to get Mecole and or godwin some reps (both former QBs I believe) as a worst case contingency plan
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Fro what I’ve heard, Mecole is your “emergency” 3rd string QB regardless.
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Stetson did a lot of traveling, and spent a lot of money, going to elite QB camps to sell/measure his status and value to the scouts.
He performed well, but his size held back his marketability.
So we see that he has a ( deservedly to the most part, I think) healthy opinion of himself. Stetson is extremely smart, makes quick and good decisions, and is slippery when he runs.
But he is small for an SEC QB. Does that negate all of the good things he does? I don’t know, but he is probably the best #3 in terms of being prepared, unflappable and serviceable in the league.
His transfer would be a big deal. One injury and Georgia is without a backup
. I guess we could run the Wild-dawg every play. I hope the kid stays, but it’s his decision and best wishes to him whatever he decides to do.
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CKS will offer Stetson a scholly, if has room, because he has to. The interesting conversation will be whether he remains in scholly beyond 2018. Chances are that this time next year Stetson is disposable. Will CKS buy him for the long haul anyway? He gets paid a ton of money to figure that out.
If the kid wants to play he shouldn’t have showed up. That’s wasn’t ever going to happen.
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Sam Vaughn didn’t leave the program. It left him. He was Scout Team Offensive Player of the Year season before last and won the Iron Dawg Award during the CMR era for never missing a practice, work out, meeting or a class. He was on the SEC Honor Roll. He graduated in four years. He bulked himself up to 215 lbs and stands 6’31/2” tall. Except when he was injured last fall and had to have surgery he missed ONE PRACTICE in four years. He never quit the team like Ramsey did. He never had any issues with school work, any behavioral problems, never smoked dope and sacrificed so much just to get a little play time, even just mop up time. In four years they never let him get in for one snap. Not one. And this is some of those blow out games against smaller schools and some SEC blow out games. At the G day game, they never let him have one snap. Not one. The kid is a great kid, and Dawg thru and thru, and all he wanted was a chance to show how good he was. Just a chance, and he never got it. This was after he was told when he walked on he would be treated fairly and given a chance, which caused him to turn down offers from other smaller, more elite academic schools. Every spring the coaches told him to hang in there keep trying and he would get his chance. It never happened. Hell, he even made the baseball team as a pitcher. He was treated about the same or worse over there.. Can you imagine the effort he put out to play baseball in the spring and spring football and STILL be on the SEC Honor Roll? They treated him like shit, lied to him, and acted like he was a nobody. Then just before he graduated Coley told him he would not be invited to fall camp. After all this, they told him that. And you wonder why he is cynical and isn’t returning/ Would you? So don’t buy all this bullshit about how warm and fuzzy these coaches are about molding young men and being honest with these kids and character and on and on. It’s all BS. And he was treated disgracefully there, and was such an asset to UGA and a credit to himself. Screw them.
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Spike bringing the nuts.
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I have often been annoyed that we can’t figure out how to get more guys more snaps in the 2nd half of games against Directional State. If you’re going to play those cupcake games, why wouldn’t you? This is not “everybody gets a trophy” – it’s just, hey, you’re on the team, you’re contributing, it’s a reciprocal relationship.
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Exactly ! the back ups work just as hard, or harder than the first team guys, yet get less of the benefits. Especially the walk on guys. Put them in when the game is out of reach and reward them for helping the team! That’s all they ask for. But, it rarely happens. How do you really know if they can play if they don’t ever get in top play?
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I’m glad you took the time to praise Vaughn for those of us who don’t know the details. You make a good case for his retention in our program that now will never be. We have good players with greatness to be seen, but if they never get a chance, the unfortunate rubs in their football life can affect us all.
Does anyone remember a great RB we had who had a backup who rarely got in the game, but ended up being the MVP of Denver’s SB team? At one time the two of them were #! and #2 RBs in the NFL
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As much as I love participation awards I’ve gotta say, CKS seemed far more interested in getting Fromm as many in-game reps as possible, even in mop-up duty. Hell, even Eason hardly saw the field; much less Bennett and certainly not Vaughn.
I think it’s slightly unreasonable to frame this so personally. Idk about you but I was very pleased with the improvements Fromm made throughout the year…
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Interesting point and I can see it being very valid with a true Fr, you can’t argue with the results.
However, G-day is another story. Smart may have dropped the ball with Bennett being a transfer risk and not working to keep Vaughn.
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Yeah, agreed. G-day would’ve been an opportune moment to give these guys some much deserved recognition. But if these guys are really dying to get on the field I’m not so certain a couple minutes during the spring game is gonna keep em around.
Unfortunately, ’tis the nature of the beast. CFB is a business and Kirby is an employee of the University. Spike is definitely correct in downplaying the warm and fuzzy sentiments regarding coaches. But I just disagree with how personally he’s made it.
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