Will Florida overwhelm Georgia QB Stetson Bennett? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the showdown between the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs and the No. 8 Florida Gators, and if Georgia QB Stetson Bennett will be able to handle Florida’s defense.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: Georgia, 4 and 1 in conference, 4 one 1-- I guess that's all you are, 4 and 1. Florida, 3 and 1. Loser go home. Winner is gonna have the driver's seat for a game against Alabama.
Georgia would be a rematch. Florida would be their first crack. Very interesting game here because I think Dan Mullen's got his program kind of up where you want it, and it's ready to get the Gators back into that top pecking of the SEC. So there's a lot there for Florida.
Obviously, Georgia desperately wants to get back to a title rematch with Alabama and still has playoff hopes. Both of these teams would have playoff hopes. Thoughts on this one. I'll start with Pete this time.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah, I think Florida's gonna win this game. I really feel like Florida's defense isn't great. But here's the thing about Georgia right now with Stetson Bennett, they've regressed as the year has gone on. They have not gotten better. Will we see JT Daniels? Will we not?
Kirby Smart to me right now is where Nick Saban was like seven or eight years ago with his program, perfectly content to go to Lexington and win 14-3 and just sort of play football that way. On the evolutionary scale, Kirby Smart is still sort of like a few generations or centuries behind, if you want to make the scientific analogy, to where Nick Saban and Alabama have evolved to, which will probably win you eight games this year in the SEC but is not going to get you where you ultimately want to go and where your fanbase thinks you should go.
So Florida I feel like will be back a little bit more whole again. Their defense showed some promise against Pat's Missouri Tigers on Saturday. But this is obviously another big stage for Kyle Trask, who I just trust a lot more on this stage than I do Stetson Bennett.
PAT FORDE: Yeah. No, I mean, I think you hit on a couple of key points there. For one, Florida's defense is getting better. And I think Todd Grantham can be exposed by a good quarterback, and Georgia doesn't have a good quarterback. So the stuff that he dials up could cause a lot of problems for Stetson Bennett.
Since halftime against Alabama, here's Stetson Bennett's stat line. 15 of 33 for 235 yards, zero touchdowns, four interceptions. That is brutal. That is bad. And Kyle Trask is gonna outplay him tremendously if he plays like that.
Kadarius Toney's playing really well. That guy is exciting. He's really hard to tackle. I do think this just sets up well all around for Florida here.
Georgia, if they were gonna play JT Daniels, you sure as heck would have gotten him in the game-- since he has not played since September 2019-- last week to at least get him some snaps. So I think they are ride or die with Stetson Bennett, and I think this is a die situation.
DAN WETZEL: I mean, they scored 14 with Stetson Bennett last week against Kentucky. I mean, this game to me is gonna be a-- well, we'll see what happens. But it could very well boil down to the Stetson Bennett-- not just ride or die, but prove it, kid moment. And if this goes bad the way it did in the second half of the Alabama game, Dog fans have a reason to question Kirby Smart on why we stuck with this quarterback.
Great story. Everybody likes him. But is he elite enough to beat the great teams? And Florida could be that great team. So we will see whether Stetson Bennett is the answer there.
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