Kirby Smart discusses Stetson Bennett's confidence, where QB needs to improve
Heading into the 2020 season, no one expected Stetson Bennett IV to be leading No. 5 Georgia into a showdown with No. 8 Florida likely to decide the SEC East. With the opt-out of Jamie Newman, Week 1 struggles of D’Wan Mathis and uncertainty surrounding JT Daniels, Bennett is UGA’s QB1.
On his weekly radio show, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart discussed Bennett’s confidence.
“As confident as he can be with all the things he gets to hear,” Smart said. “He obviously knows early on we didn’t have a lot of confidence in him, because we didn’t put him in there initially, and so he’s earned that in terms of practice, and leading, and being around the team and showing them he can make the correct decisions.”
Bennett had turnover issues in Georgia’s loss to Alabama and 14-3 win over Kentucky. Smart identified that as one area where the quarterback needs to improve.
“He’s got to be smarter with the ball, at the end of the day, you can’t turn the ball over physically, meaning, from him fumbling it, and then also from decisions you make of where you throw it,” Smart said.
“Now, interceptions are going to happen. We saw that with Jake (Fromm), who was a very low interception guy. (Fromm) had tipped balls, he had things happening, he had it go through receivers’ hands, so sometimes things are going to happen.
“But you can’t have poor decisions, whether they result in interceptions or not, because at that point it starts to question your decision making.”
