INDIANAPOLIS—It was 41 years in the making, but Georgia finally won its first national championship since the Herschel Walker era.
Unlike Walker, the superhero of the 1980 title, the catalyst for this monumental victory was a hardly notice one time walk on fifth year senior quarterback Stetson Bennett IV, who stepped into the spotlight at the right time as the Dawgs defeated perennial Goliath Alabama for the first time since 2007, 33-18, Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium here.
Bennett, who turned down numerous offers from smaller schools out of high school to walk on at Georgia, only to leave for a Mississippi junior college after a year on the scout team, return, lose the starting job and regain due to an injury to starter J.T. Daniels, had been the target of constant criticism from rapid Dawgs fans, who thought he didn’t have the talent to compete against Bama’s Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young.
But here was Bennett, collecting the game’s Offensive Player of the Year after leading Georgia to a fourth quarterback comeback victory, living out the dream of a kid who grew up in Blackshear, Ga. 200 miles south of Athens, went to home games at Athens as the son of Georgia alums and adored the program.
When ESPN Game Day host Reece Davis asked him about whether his story was a tribute to underdogs everywhere Bennett was at a loss for words.
“I’ve told you all along, and I think some people didn’t believe me, that I really don’t hear any of that stuff, the social media and whatever, I really don’t,’’ he said. “Our goal was to do what we did. We did it. Some stuff that somebody said about me on the internet wasn’t going to change that.’’
For a while it looked like Bennett might be the fall boy for another disappointing moment in Georgia’s football history. Bennett was nowhere to be found in the first half when Georgia’s offense went nowhere. In its first eight possessions, the Dawgs had six points, five punts and four three and outs and fans were restless, lighting up the message boards. .
It got worse when he lost a bizarre questionable pass/fumble early in the fourth quarter in the red zone that led to an Alabama touchdown and an 18-13 Tide lead with 10 minutes left in the game. But Bennett didn’t crumble, throwing a 40- yard touchdown pass of his own to Adonal Mitchell four plays later Georgia took a 19-18 lead and never trailed again.
Bennett finished up completing 17 of 26 passes for 224 yards, completing his final four passes for 83 yards, and two TD passes, the second a 15-yard screen pass to tight end Brock Bowers for an eight yard score.
“We weren’t going to let a turnover like that prevent us from having a national championship I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
His late game performance and that of his teammates warmed the hearts of Georgia fans, who made their way through the frigid temperatures to the 80,000-seat indoor stadium here to witness this. The fact the game was played in this frozen tundra is another story. No more cold weather hosting cities please. The three-degree temperatures and ice storm did not play well with the fans, who are used to warm weather for college football’s biggest game.
The last five quarterbacks who led their teams to a college playoff title were Desahun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagliovia, Joe Burrow and Mac Jones were all first round picks Bennett’s highest project is late third. But no one deserved to embrace this unpredictable rise than Bennett, who cried at the end of the game.
“I don’t think I had cried in years,” he said late Monday night after the confetti had landed. “But there was no holding it back tonight. And I don’t think I’m done crying yet. Not a chance.”
