“The dream is to play.”

The heart wants what the heart wants, and in Stetson Bennett’s case, that’s more than being a scout team beast.

Preferred walk-on Stetson Bennett IV, the No. 3 quarterback on the Georgia depth chart, will head to junior college. He will then look to parlay that experience into another opportunity in major college football…

His departure creates a precarious situation for the Bulldogs, given that Fromm and Fields are the team’s only scholarship quarterbacks.

“Those guys, first of all, are unbelievable guys,” he said. “Just great human beings. There are also great ballplayers. I just thought that it would be extremely tough for me being a walk-on to beat them both out.”

That made UGA arguably the toughest QB depth chart to crack in the SEC, if not the nation.

“The dream is to play,” Bennett said. “It was cool being at Georgia. I loved sharing those moments at Georgia last year but the dream is to play. It just wasn’t the same growing up as a boy who wanted to play at Georgia if you are not out there. That’s the thing. It was cool. I would love to be the starting quarterback at the University of Georgia. But just being there and being on the team, that’s not good enough for me.”

“I’m going to go play somewhere,” Bennett said. “I think that’s evolved to more of the dream than just being somewhere at a place because you grew up loving it. I think now the dream is to go play and go win championships somewhere. That’s what I feel like. I am going to go chase that dream now.”

That sounds remarkably more realistic than what I’ve heard out of certain commenters here.  And who can blame him for wanting that, especially after hearing the confirmations of his abilities after his great scout team work last season?

I have no idea if he’s SEC-ready, but the more relevant consideration is that he knows he’s not first team at Georgia-ready.  Go chase that dream, Stetson.

Of course, that leaves Kirby in something of a pickle, as he’s back to inexperienced walk-ons backing up his two stud quarterbacks.  (If he were Mark Richt, no doubt there would be some grumbling about his roster management.  But I digress.)  It will be interesting to see if he tries to chase a quarterback to fill Bennett’s role.  It will also be interesting to see what, if any, impact this has in the fall regarding how Fromm and Fields are deployed.