Stetson Bennett's return to California for final act as Georgia QB comes in starring role

LOS ANGELES—To a certain extent, it’s only fitting that the nearly unimaginable story arc of Stetson Bennett’s college football career will conclude some 15 miles from the famed Hollywood sign.

Bennett was a bit player as a true freshman walk-on quarterback the last time Georgia came to Southern California for its Rose Bowl game with Oklahoma in the 2017 national semifinals.

Now, here he is once again as probably the biggest star on college football’s biggest stage—the national championship game against TCU Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET in SoFi Stadium where Bennett will try to lead his team to a second straight national title.

All of which would have seemed preposterous for John Seter back then if someone had told him how this would all have played out. He wouldn’t have believed it.

“No, in the nicest way,” Seter, a scout team quarterback for Georgia back then like Bennett who remains good friends with him, said Friday night by phone. “Yeah, he knew that at the time, too, right then and there. He grew a lot. He continues to grow and he understands that, and I still think he’s got a ton more to show.”

Back in 2017, Bennett famously gave Georgia’s defense fits playing the role of Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield in practice in bowl prep.

Now, Bennett Monday will be playing in the same stadium that Mayfield now calls home for the Los Angeles Rams.

Bennett on the trip from Georgia couldn’t help but being struck by how things had changed. He showed how much Friday in a group message he sent to some of those 2017 walk-ons.

“I sent them a video of my little layout bed that I had in the plane,” Bennett said Saturday at the College Football Playoff Media Day where he was sitting at a podium with Georgia coach Kirby Smart to his left. “I was like dude, we couldn’t sniff these seats back in '17. I’m all the way up there. They were like, heck yeah. That makes me happy. That was cool.”

Bennett had a gallon of water, a laptop with game film and a notepad around his reclining bed.

John Williams, the famed composer whose works include Stars Wars and the theme from Jaws, wrote a new theme song for ESPN’s broadcast that will be heard Monday, according to Variety.

Bennett enjoys blockbusters himself. He went with Seter to see Avatar 2, the highest grossing film of 2022, at University 16 Cinemas last month.

Bennett, no doubt, will be a central storyline for the game.

How could the Blackshear native not after walking away from Georgia in the spring of 2018 in search of a place where he could be the guy, only to return on scholarship to the Bulldogs after a season at Jones College in Ellisville, Miss.

“He knew there was no guarantee that he was going to play at our place the next season but he knew he could play if he went to Mississippi,” Smart said.

Bennett and his mother Denise came into Smart’s office that spring “in complete confidence,” that Bennett was good enough to play, Smart said.

“That conviction they had when they sat in my office should have said, there's something special about this guy,” Smart said.

Bennett had no illusions he’d be back to play for Georgia.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “When I left, I thought it was deuces out forever from UGA. I didn't think I was coming back. I kind of knew when I pulled the trigger that, hey, I'm not here at Georgia just to hang out and be on the team….I want to play ball. I want to do what I think I can do.”

Smart was asked Saturday, what he would tell his golfing buddies 20 to 30 years from now about Bennett’s legacy.

“Well, I got a long story to tell you, I can assure you that,” he said. “You think about the things he and I have been through, decisions made. I mean, from the recruitment process to his official visit to what will happen Monday night. I mean, where to begin? It will be a long round of golf because there's a lot of history there for he and I. And I'm just appreciative of the way he's handled everything and really what he stands for.”

Bennett played the 2019 season as a backup before offensive coordinator Todd Monken arrived. Monken shared on Saturday his first thoughts on Bennett when he watched him.

“We're not any different than most,” he said. “There's preconceived notions of whatever we see. The way a person looks, the way they carry themselves, a star rating. What someone else says about somebody we take it as gold. We do it all the time. …I do it all the time. And I'm wrong. And you look to others at times because of those perceptions and at times you're not always as astute to just look at what the product looks like. I think that there's a lot of times in life you get taught a valuable lesson and that's one of them.”

Bennett was called on off the bench in the 2020 opener to rally Georgia to a win at Arkansas and became the starter only to lose it after injury and losses to Alabama and Florida made him a backup again.

That’s how he started the 2021 season until Bennett, listed at 5-foot-11 and 190-pounds, won the job once and for all.

“At times you look at other directions for players and you’re not smart enough to see what’s right under your nose and the player you have is sitting right there,” Monken said last week. "The key is do you change course and make it right on who should be playing?"

Bennett is 25-1 as a starter the past two seasons including 14-0 this season after he really didn’t have much of a decision to make about whether he should return after winning the national title.

“In my head I always knew -- I was, like, how dumb could I be to leave this opportunity that I've got here?” he said. “I'm starting quarterback at Georgia. I trust in Coach Smart, trust in our players. We have a lot of guys coming back on offense, and I'm going to get better.”

Bennett is six yards away from passing Matthew Stafford (7,731) for fifth on Georgia’s career passing yardage list. He is 71 yards away from passing Aaron Murray (3,893 in 2012) for single season passing yards. His 68.1 completion percentage is on track to set a Georgia single season-record held by Hutson Mason (67.9).

“He's a big reason why we are here,” Monken said Saturday. “I mean, there's no bones about it. He's played exceptionally well. He's got a great feel for what we want to do. He's gotten a lot better. We've gotten better at how we do it and how we prepare and prepare him.”

Seter sat with Bennett’s family at the Peach Bowl and talks with him nearly every day. They went to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a Duke basketball game last February against Florida State and compete in golf and the video game Clash of Clans.

They are part of a group of friends that are tight and include former Georgia players Owen Condon and John Fitzpatrick and current players Payne Walker and Brett Seither.

“The one thing about Stetson is he’s himself 24-7, he doesn’t try to be someone else,” Seter said. “You get what you get. I always knew he had the skill and the mindset. It was always more the mindset for him. Excuse my French but he just plays with an (f***) you attitude. He’s up front. He does not care. He doesn’t give two (sh***s) about anything. He’s just going to go out there and do his job. That’s what he does best. He just goes out there and plays ball.”

Seter left Georgia in search of playing time, too, after three years and had stops at SMU, Stetson University and finally Limestone University.

“We had the same goals in mind, same mindset so we always stayed tight,” he said.

Bennett can become the first quarterback to win back-to-back national titles since A.J. McCarron in 2011 and 2012 with Alabama. Only three others have done it since 1970, according to CBS: Southern Cal’s Matt Leinart in 2003-2004, Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier in 1994-95 and Oklahoma’s Steve Davis in 1974-75.

“How Bout a Walk-on Quarterback Winning Two Nattys?” said a sign a Georgia fan displayed inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium Dec. 31 in the Peach Bowl.

“Stetson doesn't get to where he is at, doesn't get his team to defending the national title again without being extremely intelligent and knowing what he has,” TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie said. “He doesn't have to go win the game. He's got a lot of guys that can do that for him, but he has the ability to do it.”

Bennett was in New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist a few weeks earlier when he was asked about being the first Georgia player to do that in 30 years. He said he’d leave that to the “authors and the poets. I just hope to give them good material.”

He certainly has done that and then some.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Stetson Bennett can end college career with a second national title