Eric Zeier, David Greene and Aaron Murray finished their respective football careers at Georgia as the Southeastern Conference’s all-time leading passer, with Murray still owning that distinction.
Matthew Stafford was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, and the recent parade of five-star quarterbacks to sign with the Bulldogs includes Jacob Eason, Justin Fields and Brock Vandagriff, who is currently a freshman in Kirby Smart’s program. Another five-star quarterback, JT Daniels, transferred to Athens in the spring of 2020 and began this season as the starter.
Yet it’s the unlikely former walk-on, Stetson Bennett, who ascended to the top of Georgia’s star-studded depth chart and has the opportunity Monday night against mighty Alabama in Indianapolis to deliver a national championship to a program that came close with Murray in 2012 and excruciatingly close with Jake Fromm in 2017.
No pressure, right? After all, it’s only been 41 seasons and nearly 15,000 days since Georgia’s lone Associated Press national crown in 1980.
“I’m just treating this as a football game,” Bennett said this week on a Zoom call. “Do I know this means a lot to a lot of people? Yes. Am I trying to play some kind of savior by winning a national championship for millions of people? No. I don’t think that’s my job.