The Moment Georgia Bulldogs QB Stetson Bennett Took a Stand
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ATHENS - There was hardly any sound. The crowd and most of the players on the field didn’t know what had just happened.
Alabama’s Brian Branch nonchalantly held the ball Georgia Bulldogs QB Stetson Bennett had thrown nanoseconds before he stepped out of bounds. It was such an odd play - no one on the field thought it was a fumble.
It appeared the play was an incomplete pass - officials saw it another way.
“It is going to be red ball going this way,” the side judge told the referee as the crowd caught its collective breath.
Even in the odd silence, few folks heard the side judge as he talked with the referee. Georgia’s offense was unsure of what happened. Replay ruled that the play should stand.
Four plays later Alabama scored and took a 18-13 lead.
In many ways that play could have ended the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs’ championship season. It would have been an exclamation point for Bennett’s critics. It would have been the Dawgs wilting to the Tide in the fourth quarter again.
Bennett and Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken said a collective “to hell with that - let’s roll.”
Down 18-13, Bennett would throw the Dawgs to the lead. He hit Jermaine Burton for 18 yards on the first play of the Dawgs’ drive. A play later Alabama was flagged for pass interference. Bennett had Georgia at the Alabama 42-yard line in two plays. Had the penalty not been called Burton would have walked into the end zone with a touchdown.
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On first and ten from there he hit Kenny McIntosh for another ten yards. Then Bennett was tossed for an 8-yard loss by Alabama’s Dallas Turner.
It was 2nd and 18, and the clock was ticking on Georgia’s season. Coming out of the huddle, AD Mitchell knew he had one-on-one coverage on the right side of the Dawgs’ formation. Running back James Cook, who ripped off a 67-yard run to set up Georgia’s first lead of the game, was to Bennett’s right.
Bama had just scored its fifth sack of the game. This time Bama went with a delayed blitz, and Cook stepped up to make the most critical block of the season.
Bennett stuck his right foot down exactly at midfield; Mitchell was flying towards the end zone with the Redcoats. As his wrist flicked, Bennett was preparing to end decades of frustration for his childhood team.
Monken decided to move the ball down the field on the strength of Bennett’s arm. The move might have been the correct move in terms of calling plays, but it was also in defiance of the frustration of the moment and history, too.
Georgia wasn’t just going to beat Alabama with its defense. It was going to beat the Tide with its former walk-on quarterback slinging it. As the turf pellets sprayed into the air, the Redcoats had a perfect view of Mitchell coming down with the ball, and then rolling to a celebration the program was so desperate to have for for so long.
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The Dawgs were back on top - for good.
That drive, perhaps the most important one this century in Georgia football, wasn’t the death of the story of Stetson Bennett - it was the birth of his legacy. He tossed another touchdown to Brock Bowers four and a half minutes later.
He added his tears of joy when Kelee Ringo ran into history that cold January night.
The story of Stetson Bennett isn’t impossible - its just hard to believe. All that said - Stetson’s story isn’t yet done.