Shot.
Greg McElroy believes the decision is simply. Georgia coach Kirby Smart should stick with Stetson Bennett going forward, and not return back to JT Daniels, as Daniels recovers and returns from an oblique and lat injury…
“You can’t justify taking him out,” McElroy said. “I don’t care what anyone says, the guy has got the hot hand. So I know that JT Daniels maybe, even with his legs, how many different plays does Stetson Bennett make with his legs this past weekend. I don’t know. You know me, everyone who listens to this show, I am not one that thinks JT Daniels is the second coming of Peyton Manning. I think he’s a good solid player, I don’t think he’s a future top 5 pick. I’ve never thought that. I think he’s got a limited ceiling, and I think he’s very, very accurate on the underneath throws. However, I don’t think he’s this total game changer, take over the game.”
Chaser.
What really gets me here is that Kirby can’t win. First he gets chewed up for not playing the talent (Fields) over the hot hand, now he’s being advised to do exactly what he was criticized for doing with Fromm.
Then again, maybe it’s worth taking McElroy with a giant grain of sand here.
McElroy disputed the narrative that Georgia’s offense got better when Daniels went in last season, but he said that wasn’t the case, the Bulldogs simply played against worst teams.
Get The Picture 
McElroy needs to drink a big ol cup of shut the fuck up.
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A freaking men! This clown loves to hear himself speak. He needs a Corcoran is his piehole.
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Yeah, actually. THIS.
I posted my thoughts below, but came back because I’m still pissed. Allow me to elaborate on RangerRuss’s poignant observation:
This is a dude with an opinion and absolutely nothing to lose telling the guy with everything on the line what he should do. SCREW this guy and his 2
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cents. Here are two quotes from ol’ Elroy McGregor:
“You can’t justify taking him out.”
“I don’t know.”
Only one is correct.
(Hit reply too fast and then power went out… that’s what being angry gets you I guess…)
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When he co-hosted the ESPNU morning drive show with trolling’ Danny Kanell, I thought he sounded pretty reasonable. Sad to see the steaming Danny hot takes rubbing off on him.
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*the trollin’ Danny Kanell
is what I meant
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RR, that is the most eloquent and succinct retort
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Greg here comes 2 words for you, “Shut the fuck up!”
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Agree. McElroy is an idiot and wants to see Georgia fail.
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McElroy is suffering from the same recency bias that seems to be afflicting some here. I’m going to have to rethink what I’ve thought about McElroy, because this is some Billy Madison level of stupid.
Bennett is limited and limits this offense because he absolutely needs the running game to succeed, because he does best off play-action where he isn’t expected to read the entire field and defense. He is not nearly as good in the quick throw game with the short to intermediate throws as J.T. Daniels is. Yes, he can run the ball a bit, but lets not get carried away. He’s not a “running QB.”
When a team takes away the run game, and believe you me, like in 2017 and 2018, it will happen, and when it does, we need a QB capable of running the entire offense the way it’s designed to run in order to win. That QB is J.T. Daniels. It is not Stetson Bennett.
Thank God we’ve had Bennett against the good but not great SEC teams. I was wrong about him getting the second team reps and being the first guy off the bench. But lets not blind ourselves to the reality of who is actually the better QB. That guy is J.T. Daniels and people, it’s not even close.
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Last year, Bama was better, still we had a second half lead. UF injured the guy, game over at that point.
I have confidence in both of the QB’s myself.
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Yeah I don’t see this defense folding up like they did against Bama and Florida. Partly because this defense is much better and second there aren’t any offenses out there this year like those last year.
Bennett can absolutely get us where we want to be, but I still want a healthy JT because who wouldn’t want to very good QBs?
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“two”
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From my chair, I agree that JT is the guy. He looks more in command pre-snap and his accuracy looks improved. But I don’t think it’s a huge gap. Stetson’s ability to run makes the entire running game better. Defenses have to at least account for him. That adds a lot of value. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we called QB runs very early against Arky and Auburn. One thing is certain. I’m glad we have them both. Penn State sure found out the hard way that you need more than one QB ready.
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Kirby will get second guessed till he puts a trophy in the case and even then….
You have to give Stetson credit because he’s improved tremendously. Last year in the lead up to the Bama game he threw a lot of balls that should of been picked but weren’t. Luck caught up to him and that became the knock on him along with batted passes. We’ve seen none of that this year. Kudos.
You could make the case that we are better right now with Stet until we start to get more playmakers on the field back from injury.
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I’ll add that I think JTD is the guy. Putting the punditry to the side, my collective sense is bulldog fans also believe that JTD is the guy and will go in when cleared. Contrast that to the situation with Fields where MANY Georgia fans thought he should of been given a chance after that LSU disaster.
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Stet has improved no doubt, but the blatantly bad decisions are still there. He’s gotten away with multiple interception-worthy balls this year. He can’t be trusted to read the entire field and put the game on his arm. That’s why JT is the starter as soon as he’s healthy.
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I don’t remember him throwing a ball like you describe last Saturday.
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The stats do back up what you’re saying to some degree. I recall a few bad throws but not as many as you suggested so I looked it up on SEC stat cat which tracks interceptable passes.
2021 Season to date interceptable pass rate:
Bennett – 6.45% of attempts which is middle of the pack among SEC throwers
Daniels – 4.23% of attempts
Bennet last year clocked in at 9.74% – oof
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If you run the numbers, SBIV has 4 such attempts and JT has 3 —- so not sure 1 makes it all that different.
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Let’s not go overboard. He’s thrown two pretty bad picks and got away with one against Arkansas. He’s less prone to forcing plays, but it still happens. Maybe the fact that he didn’t force anything against Auburn is a good sign.
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I think it’s important to note that if we get Smith, Blaylock, Pickens back the question answers itself. I’m not so sure that SBIV can play/throw to the potential of our #1s that would be on the field. I know Stet has a strong arm but ball placement on some of the intermediate routes seems more of a JT skillset.
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I don’t care what John Parker McElroy thinks.
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If JT is healthy, JT plays. I love SBIV. He’s a DGD, but the path to a national championship (and likely an SEC championship) needs JT at the controls.
McElroy is doing his Bammer work, but I doubt Kirby is listening to his hot take.
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I agree that JT is the guy. But I think people are way too anchored to the idea that we couldn’t win it all with Stetson. It’s like they made up their mind last year and no new data point will change anything. 2021 healthy Stetson looks much improved after another year with Monken. Zach Calzada just beat Alabama. So I guess Calzada is capable of winning it all, but not Stetson. Also, the Oregon QB who won in Columbus must be capable of winning it all, but not Stetson. I think we could win it all with either QB.
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I just think the path is likely a lot rockier in a winner-take-all type of game with SBIV. We could win it all with him.
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Yeah, that’s fair. I think JT gives us a better chance too.
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Ya know, if Kirbs gets a chance to hoist that nice trophy with confetti falling from the rafters (when ever) and he says thank you to the student section/fan base we should say back to him…”This one is for you KIrbs, thanks for the fun ride to the dance”…
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All I know is that Stetson will forever be a DGD and he will be talked about for generations. He’s almost like our own Rudy Ruettiger, except he’s a starter and he wins big games. At this point there’s plenty of material to make a documentary on the guy.
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Play whomever gives you the best chance to win.
No fan and no commentator knows who that is. The Coaches know. Everything else is conjecture.
Win the damn games.
HBTD
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Three things I believe with all my heart:
1. Steston is a DGD and greatly improved.
2. JT is a DGD and almost certainly better at running the offense.
3. Todd Monken knows more about 1 & 2 than any of us, including McElroy.
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Bingo Cholly!!
(WH)
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Much like “Clemsoning” or “UGA can’t win a big game” or “OU can’t play defense” or “Texas is back” – this is one of the national media narratives for CKS and probably will hang around until CKS wins a NC.
It was out there for awhile in 2017 when he chose Fromm over Eason after Eason returned to health but it was quieted because UGA lost in OT to Bama. It started showing up again in 2018 because of Fromm & Fields and really took off after Fields transferred to OSU for the 2019 season.
We heard it ad nauseam last year for reasons we all know.
CKS cannot control injuries and player recovery and no matter what happens with JT or Stetson from here on out – he is going to get second-guessed for this decision unless UGA wins the title.
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“I hope Pete Golding isn’t in that bag!”
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Pundits gotta pundit. When people get paid to talk, sometimes they’ll talk just to talk.
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Right. And it isn’t true that the defenses got worse last year, at least not statistically.
And current top 5 Cincy was one of the 4 BTW.
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Some people will talk and talk and talk even without getting paid. And just because they are paid doesn’t mean that they really know a damn thing. Trick is sifting out the chaff and hearing the truth among all the chatter.
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“Thank you Mr. Cowboy, I’ll take it under advisement.”
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JT is the starter. Stetson is the backup. When the starter gets injured the backup plays. When the starter gets well, the starter should start again. Everybody loves the backup QB because of the circumstances—he comes in and saves the day when the starting QB gets hurt. But when the starting QB heals then he should play. The HC can always reinsert the backup if the starter doesn’t perform well. If he’s well JT should start.
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Can’t imagine why Greg McElroy would push back on the idea of a more talented quarterback being a better option than a plucky, hard working game manager.
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I see what you did there. Put another way, Greg has personal knowledge of when a QB is not a top 5 pick.
I haven’t always looked askance at Greg’s musings, but let’s face it: he needed a job and ESPN needed a ginger to fill out their diversity map. So, he may just be getting a script from ESPN to get clicks and eyeballs. Facebook isn’t the only debbil in the world.
It does give me comfort to know that Greg doesn’t to pick; like Ben Dukes said, the coaches know and they will decide.
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Hahahahahahaha. Get rekt, scrubby “Game Manager” McElroy.
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McElroy should know, coming off that successful pro career, err I mean that great head coaching career, or was he a pro GM that excelled at finding talent?
I’m sure it was something like that. He couldn’t just be another clown with a half ass opinion questioning the decisions of the coach with the #1 team in cfb.
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It’s going to be a long week of this shit isn’t it.
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I can’t say who would be the best to play QB from here on out. I will say Bennett’s running ability doesn’t just impact the game when he runs it also keeps the DE from crashing down inside when the backs get it up the middle. I really don’t think there is much difference in passing ability but there is in experience with the receivers. The coaches want to win at least as as much as we do so I am sure they will make the wisest decision they can. Either way our sideline will be a lot less panicked to trot another QB out there if we need to than whoever is on the other sideline in any game we play the rest of the year.
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I think Greg’s half-right. Stetson’s continued starts means he’s the one developing all the chemistry and timing you’d like to have under your belt when you hit a game where all that really matters.
But JT can hit windows Stetson can’t. That’s based off their entire body of work, not just comparative samples from last year.
But that assumes JT is fully healthy. I have no idea how much margin separates the two when the JT’s got some upper body muscles messing with his throws.
And given that it’s a real question, it’s going to get a lot of unsolicited media answers.
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I work under the assumption that CKS and Monken know more about the situation than I do and I don’t sweat it. I figure whatever they decide will be best…. but I don’t get paid to “have a take”…. if I did, maybe I’d have strong feelings one way or the other (or pretend I did).
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Taken with a grain of salt maybe? He can go pound sand.
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Thinking Out Loud is 1000x better funnier and awesome with Orson and whomever then with Opie here and a DL from LSU (who I actually like)
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These new guys are hard to look at. Spencer Hall looks like he hasn’t trimmed his beard in years. The other guy has a 1990’s Bobby Brown haircut. Both wear shitty, ugly, wrinkled shirts and ragged pants. Radio does us favors. TV not so much.
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I like Stetson, but I am worried about what happens when we run into a defensive line that gets push and puts their hands up. That said, I like also JT but worry about what happens when we run into a defensive line that gets push and puts their hands up.
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All I heard was “My School beat Bennett last year so please make sure hes in at the SEC Championship kthksbai.”
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McElroy is still butt-hurt from his red elephants going down in Aggieland. All he’s trying to do is stir up some non-existent bs about Georgia to quell what I can honestly say has been the most media love and national hype I’ve seen my beloved Dawgs receive in my lifetime.
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Bama fans are like that.
They’re mostly stupid.
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All I know is having 2 top shelf veteran qbs is a really good thing. Injuries and such. Not sure we’d be undefeated if Beck was starting. We are very lucky to have both Bennett and/or JT able to lead the offense on any given Saturday.
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Kirby doesn’t have time for this shit and neither do you. Talking head gotta talk. Don’t get your panties in a wad. Expect a lot more of this for the foreseeable future.
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When JT is ready, JT will play. What’s the debate?
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I think JT plays against Kentucky. He may not start but he’ll play a good bit. K
I think JT should be the starter, but it’s good having SB around too. Maybe JT throws better darts but SB can escape a pass rush and roll out with the actual threat to run. Even if JT can run, he won’t be allowed to because of his injury situation. I’m hoping they both return for one more year.
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