Harrison Reno
6 days ago2 min
For the third time this season, Georgia will be looking for a starting quarterback to emerge. After the Florida game this past weekend, Smart informed the media that Stetson Bennett’s shoulder injury could limit his reps this week.
Bennett’s injury occurred on his touchdown pass to Marcus Rosemy, where a Florida defender delivered a hit that hurt Bennett’s throwing shoulder. The injury is an AC sprain in his right shoulder.
Stetson was replaced by D’Wan Mathis later in the third quarter after throwing his final pass of the game that resulted in an interception. Both quarterbacks would struggle as they combined for completing just nine passes on 29 attempts.
With Bennett’s fate for this weekend, unknown Georgia needs to prepare three scholarship quarterbacks to get reps this week in an attempt to find a new starter.
JT Daniels and D’Wan Mathis are the immediate favorites. Mathis started the season opener at Arkansas before being pulled after six offensive drives. Mathis has thrown three interceptions and one touchdown in just one start and two games as a substitute.
D’Wan is playing his first full season at the collegiate level as a redshirt freshman after receiving surgery to remove a brain cyst last season. In his three appearances, Mathis struggles with composure and decision-making. Confidence does not look to be high after the season opener against Arkansas. Restoring Mathis’s confidence will go a long way in finding out his true potential.
Mathis has a cannon for an arm; he showed that on a few incomplete throws on Saturday. Dialing in his deep ball will come with more confidence. Mathis also brings scrambling ability outside of the pocket. His mobility adds another threat in the run game for defenses to worry about. His dual-threat style opens up the playbook for Todd Monken.
JT Daniels is coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL. Daniels hurt his knee last season in the opener against Stanford while at USC as the starting quarterback. Daniels transferred to Athens this summer to participate in the competition at quarterback and has yet to see the field.
JT is a proper schematic fit at quarterback for the offense that Todd Monken wants to run. Daniels played his freshman season as the starting quarterback under Graham Harrell, a young offensive coordinator who runs a similar system to Monken.
JT Daniels is a young gunslinger with impressive arm talent and arm strength. Daniels’ arm talent drew comparisons to former USC quarterback Sam Darnold and current Green Bay Packer Aaron Rodgers.
Restoring confidence in JT’s knee is the suspected reasoning for the holdup. Smart has emphasized that he would like to see more mobility out of JT before throwing him out on the field.
Carson Beck is expected to see reps this week if Stetson is held out. Beck is a true freshman pro-style quarterback. Beck, the former four-star QB out of Mandrin, Florida, is focused on learning the system and staying ready whenever his number is called.