Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart: "Stetson Bennett is the American Dream"
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NEW YORK CITY - Georgia Bulldogs QB Stetson Bennett’s sprint to the end of his college career will go on without the Heisman Trophy.
That award went to Southern California’s Caleb Williams, who was the favorite to win the award coming into the weekend. According to Heisman trust Williams garnered 77.37% of total possible points, which is 12th highest in the history of the award.
"I may be standing up here today,”Williams told Bennett, TCU’s Max Duggan and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud “But y'all get to go to the College Football Playoff."
Bennett will lead the No. 1 Bulldogs into the College Football Playoff with the goal of defeating C.J. Stroud’s Ohio State Buckeyes in the Peach Bowl in a matter of a few weeks.
“I’m worried about how can we win the game,” Stetson Bennett told ESPN when asked about his game. “My uncle says its easy if you don’t have a choice.”
Stetson Bennett finishes 4th in Heisman voting
1. Caleb Williams - 2,031
2. Max Duggan - 1,420
3. C.J. Stroud - 539
4. Stetson Bennett - 349
For years Bennett’s choice was to stay loyal to the Bulldogs. He walked on in 2017 for the team’s run to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. That concluded with a loss on the final play of the game to Alabama in Atlanta.
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A season ago Bennett and the Bulldogs not only avenged that difficult loss, but made history by being the first UGA team in four decades to win the national title. Tears flowed from fans in the stands, and from Bennett on the field.
"Stetson Bennett is the American Dream,” UGA coach Kirby Smart told ESPN Saturday night. “He won over his teammates by the way he was on the scout team. We kept thinking he wasn't good enough, and he kept proving us off over and over and over again."
The long-time Dawg couldn’t hold his emotions back as it became clear Georgia was poised to win it all.
A year later Bennett played well enough to get invited to the Heisman Trophy Ceremony. He’s the first Georgia player to be invited to New York since 1992. Should the Bulldogs win their next two games, Bennett would go down as one of the few starting players in college football history to be the starting quarterback on multiple national championship teams. The last to do that was Alabama’s A. J. McCarron.
“I have never thought about the Heisman. I just wanted to play quarterback at Georgia,” Bennett said Monday in a statement after hearing of his status as a finalist for college football’s most prestigious award.
He will get that chance soon enough.
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Bennett's 2022 regular season included his throwing for 3,425 yards, 20 touchdowns, six interceptions, 47 rushes for 184 yards and seven touchdowns. The South Georgia native's story is one of the most unlikely in the history of college football.
Bennett, a senior quarterback, has completed 269 of 395 passes (68.1%) for 3,425 yards and 20 touchdowns with just six interceptions while rushing for another 184 yards and seven touchdowns. He has led Georgia to a perfect 13-0 regular season and the 2022 SEC title as well as the top seed in the 2022 College Football Playoff. Bennett, who led the Bulldogs to the 2021 national title and has quarterbacked them to 15 straight wins, threw for over 300 yards four times this year and completed at least 70.0% of his passes in a game five times. His 68.1 completion percentage is ranked 13th nationally and his 8.7 yards per attempt are 14th best.