Even for a fanbase admittedly prone to worshipping at the altar of Murphy’s law, hope and optimism abound for Georgia football fans entering the 2021 college football season.
There are numerous reasons driving Dawgs fan to be bullish about the 2021 campaign, but the straw stirring their expectation cocktail is quarterback JT Daniels.
Buoyed by a newfound downfield passing game ignited by Daniels’ lively right arm, Georgia football finished the final four games of the 2020 season unblemished, and left Georgia fans salivating for the what-might-be potential of Daniels and the Dawgs offense in Year Two under offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
But, what if JT Daniels never saw a snap during the 2020 season? Would Georgia fans, and the national college football media at large, be mentioning Georgia as one of the teams primed to hoist championship hardware in January?
Hop in Doc Brown’s DeLorean with me for a minute and let’s set the dial for November 7, 2020 at 3:30 pm.
Let’s whisper in Stetson Bennett’s ear that on 3rd-and-7 from the Florida 32, Florida DB Rashad Torrence is fixin’ to come untouched on a delayed blitz from your arm side, and it would behoove you to shift protection so someone could deter him from laying a lick on you that will send shockwaves throughout the Georgia football landscape.
Like Marty McFly, let’s also say we were successful in altering history and Stetson’s shoulder re-appears in our iPhone picture of the 2020 World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Healthy, and confident, The Mailman leads Georgia to a thrilling win in a shootout against a toothless Gators defense, 42-38.
Absent the injury, it’s not far-fetched to think that a Stetson-led offense wouldn’t have kept pace and eclipsed Florida.
Remember, after getting ear-holed by Lewis Cine, Kyle Pitts didn’t return and Florida’s vaunted offense looked as toothless as their defense in the second half, managing to put up only six points over the game’s final thirty minutes.
Prior to Torrence popping Stetson’s shoulder almost out of socket, The Mailman was steady and confident. He started the game 2-of-3 for 45 yards in the air with that magnificent touchdown to Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, to go along with a 12-yard scramble.
Watching from the stands, the offense looked and felt like Georgia might hang half-a-hundred on the Gators. Admirably, Stetson tried to push through the injury, but it was evident that he was no longer 100 percent.
He only completed 3 of his 13 passes after the Torrance hit and even on the completions, his accuracy suffered the most. Notably, he missed John Fitzpatrick streaking down the right sideline on a play in the 2nd quarter that would have flipped the field and put Georgia in prime position to notch another score.
In our Hill Valley hypothetical, Stetson makes it through the ballgame unscathed, and like he’d done every game of the season not played in Tuscaloosa, The Mailmain delivers.
All season, when Head Coach Kirby Paul Smart was asked about the quarterback situation, his response was steadfastly along the lines of, “We’re going to play the guy who gives us the best chance to win, and right now, that’s Stetson.”
After a huge win in the Cocktail Party, sporting a top-4 ranking, and staring down a wide-open highway to the SEC Championship Game at The Benz, there is no chance that HCKPS makes a switch prior to the Mississippi State game to go with JT Daniels.
The Dawgs would’ve dusted off the 2018 and 2019 playbook, played ground-and-pound football for the remaining three games, and then rolled the dice in Atlanta in a rematch of their early season tilt with the Crimson Tide.
Outside of playing in the SECCG, Georgia’s season most likely doesn’t look much different from a results perspective in our Robert Zemeckis re-imagining.
Georgia football probably didn’t have the guns to match Alabama in Atlanta, and the committee most likely would have used two failed bites at the Crimson Tide apple to justify (rightfully) keeping the Dawgs out of the playoffs.
The main difference, and it is significant, is that no one would really know what to expect from JT Daniels coming in to the 2021 season.
Gone would be the 4-0 record as a starter at Georgia with two riveting 4th quarter wins over Mississippi State and Cincinnati. Absent would be the invaluable game reps that JT Daniels took as Georgia football’s signal-caller.
Maybe most importantly, JT Daniels would not yet have had the opportunity to prove – to his teammates, to his coaches, to Georgia fans – that he is the guy.
That hidden by his cloak of California cool is an unquestioned leader burning white hot with a passion to win. That he is equally as content using his powerful right arm to distribute the football to the many playmakers on the Georgia roster, as he is launching laser-guided smart bombs down the field.
It hurt losing to Florida in Jacksonville. It stung seeing the dome populated with fans wearing blue and orange instead of red and black. But maybe, just maybe, it was the best thing that could have happened to Georgia football.
Knowing everything we know now, even if we had the necessary plutonium to power Doc’s DeLorean, we’d let everything play out just like it did.
The 2020 season didn’t pan out quite like Georgia fans hoped. But amidst all of their frustration, they found a quarterback. A California gunslinger that bears an eerie resemblance to Val Kilmer’s Oscar-nominated Doc Holliday from Tombstone.
Like his Hollywood doppelganger, JT Daniels assured Georgia fans of one thing during his four-game audition to close out the 2020 season, “I’m your huckleberry.”