Georgia football: Bulldogs can win more than just games with JT Daniels
By Rick Beach
As we all know, JT Daniels is dealing with an oblique injury. When that injury occurred is unknown, but I do believe it was before the Clemson game. On that, I would like to tip my cap to Georgia football Head Coach Kirby Smart on the job he did to keep that in-house.
In this day and age of social media, he found a way to keep Dabo Swinney and company from knowing. Then to Todd Monken for calling quick passes and keeping Daniels out of harm’s way.
When Georgia kicked off against UAB Saturday, Stetson Bennett took the opening snap for the offense. On the second play of the game, Bennett found Jermaine Burton for a 73-yard touchdown, and the rout was on to demolishing the Blazers. Bennett finished with an impressive stat line 10-of-12 for 288 yards and five touchdowns.
Stetson Bennett proved why he started over Carson Beck, who went 4-of-10 for 88 yards, one touchdown and one interception — much to the disproval of many Georgia fans.
Smart knew what Bennett was capable of, and he knew Bennett would take care of the football and make the plays the UAB defense would give him. He also knows the players have full confidence in Bennett. However, nobody envisioned what we saw Saturday in Sanford Stadium.
As impressive as Bennett was, Georgia will not play UAB every week and only gets to play Vanderbilt once. If we are honest, this defense is the backbone of the team. However, as we have seen too many times, there will be a game where the offense has to win.
Daniels is a potential NFL Draft first-rounder. Go back to the last national championship that a non-first rounder won — 2015 Alabama with Jacob Coker. Daniels is known for his football IQ and work ethic in the film room. That, combined with his elite arm talent, is what UGA will need at some point.
We have not seen a healthy Daniels this season, but we have seen a banged-up version who could hold off Clemson. He did that based on his reputation and the respect Clemson had for Daniels.
Against UAB, we saw what Todd Monken could dial-up offensively. With a wide receiver room getting healthier each week and Daniels doing the same, things could get very explosive.
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Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a defense that has scored more touchdowns (2) than given up (0) until the offense finally gets healthy and reaches its full potential.