JT Daniels makes eye-opening comments about his health, Georgia's receivers
What took so long? That’s what many Georgia fans are asking after USC transfer QB JT Daniels finally got his first start in a Georgia uniform in Saturday’s 31-24 win over Mississippi State.
Daniels was impressive, completing 28 of his 38 pass attempts for 401 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
After the game, Daniels was asked about his health, as he spent the offseason recovering from a knee injury suffered at USC. He said he’s been ready to go since after the Week 1 game against Arkansas:
JT: "I wasn't cleared for Arkansas. From then on, it was a coach's decision."
— Brandon Sudge (@brandonsudge) November 22, 2020
That’s an eyebrow-raising comment, especially since Georgia QBs Stetson Bennett IV and D’Wan Mathis have struggled mightily the past couple of games. Could Georgia have taken down Florida with Daniels at the helm? We’ll never know.
Daniels also had some praise for Georgia WRs Jermaine Burton and George Pickens, both of whom had 8 catches on Saturday night:
JT Daniels đź’¬ "If you have Jermaine Burton and George Pickens, don't recruit them if you aren't going to throw to them. If you give me one-on-one with them, I am going to make sure you can stop it."
— 960 The Ref (@960theref) November 22, 2020
Burton and Pickens will love hearing that. We’ll see if the Georgia offense continues to click under Daniels.
What’s so eye-opening about his statement? We already knew he was cleared after week one. Kirby said so himself. That’s why it was so frustrating to watch us struggle at the QB position with a healthy JT Daniels sitting on the bench.
Daniels also said in his comments that Coach Smart always puts what’s best for the individual player first. Of course players want to play. That’s why they always hide the player’s helmet when they come out of games.
There were some saying he wasn’t playing bc of his health. Clearly Daniels is saying he was ready to go after week 1, and it was the coaches not playing him. Anyone using health as an excuse is just covering for Kirby. This kid should have been in way earlier in the season. Kirby mishandled this. If he wasn’t absolutely forced to play him, he would not have. Idk why, but it’s not bc of health and it’s not bc of productivity, as we just watched. So that makes Kirby look petty for not giving him a shot sooner
It will be very telling if JT leaves quickly for the NFL. Stupid, but telling about what is going on in Athens. I truly believe Kirby wouldn’t of started him if the alums and fans weren’t so persistent.
Maybe… He had a good game but we might want to see what happens when he plays someone other than a MSU team missing half their players…..
That just can’t be true.. There has been so many UGA fans pretending to know what was actually going on telling us that his personal doctor didn’t clear him…
It looks as though UGA fans on SDS don’t actually have a clue about what’s going on….
That’s a real shocker…
The “personal doctor didn’t clear him” story always had the feel of fake message board insiders.
You have to laugh at the UGA fans that try to act as they have some kind of inside knowledge…
“But it’s absolutely true that I’ve progressed a good amount since then and we’re still progressing every week to try to get to full strength and full health back.”
–JT Daniels, on Ron Courson and him working on his rehab.
Mississippi State is 2 wins, 5 losses
Did the writer’s and reader’s just turn on the TV for the first time yesterday?
Georgia (near the top of the SEC East) just barely beat them. So that must have been a really (not really) challenging quarterback play-book Kirby handed them yesterday to get those statistics. Here’s a coloring book with a colored bulldog in it, …..now here’s a real bulldog biting you on the ankle because your putting coupons in the mailbox. See the difference there.
Why do so many put so much energy into tinfoil hat theories?
I’m going to go with the logical reason for why Daniels – recovering from knee surgery – didn’t get the start until last night.
Could it possibly have been because Kirby was simply looking out for his players health. Yes, I think he was…
Also, I’m not sure which knee was surgically repaired . Didn’t really pay attention to which leg JT was favoring last night, but the kid was clearly limping late in the game. Hopefully it wasn’t another injury.
Now, you tinfoil hat conspiracy peddling haters can start saying Smart rushed JT onto the field. Whatever makes you feel better…
Could it be eligibility? I don’t know this kid’s story very well. Maybe if he didn’t play they could get an extra year out of him?
This year already doesn’t count toward eligibility so that doesn’t matter.
You accusing others of tin foil hate theories? LMAO
Trying to hide behind looking out for a players health? Daniels just said he was ready to play. Health wasn’t an issue. You can call others tin foil hat people, but that means you don’t believe a player when he says he could play. Daniels was ready to go and it’s on Kirby for not playing him. He didn’t play him bc of health concerns and he didn’t play him bc he wasn’t productive, as we clearly could see. So if he didn’t play bc of health or not being good enough, why wasn’t he in there? Maybe there is another reason we don’t know about. In fact it’s the only logical reason. But bc we don’t know, it makes Kirby look stubborn and petty. He had a quality QB and refused to play him until he was practically forced to. Makes no sense. You can say people have bad theories, but yours isn’t great either. I don’t even care about georgia. I have defended Smart in the past. But he messed this up big time.
I’m not sure why Kirby does not just tell the truth instead of being defensive. It’s simple, he thought the other two were better, more qualified and prepared. So he he started them. He was wrong. It happens. Some kids are just gamers. JT Daniels appeared to be just that on Saturday.
That’s exactly what he said.
Not exactly. He got all puffy and defensive about the comments and made then made his own comments about him and his coaches “having a lot of experience,” to make the call. He never flat out said I made a poor decision about the QB’s.
Because he didn’t make a poor decision. Simple as that.
Maybe so, but if he didn’t he sure looked like he did. He was defensive.
Probably because he had answered it about 100 times and was out of ways to say it.
I think that with Mullen all the time. Got to drive you crazy answering these Monday Morning QB questions over and over. However, they get paid a lot of money. Keep your cool and move on.
everyone making a big deal about JT but it was Mississippi State after all not Clemson,Ohio State or Alabama. what UGA will get is a Carson Beck who will probably transfer to Florida like Justin Fields did to Ohio State and the next 4 years will be bad for the dawgs. Be careful what you wish for, Carson Beck has never had a chance and he will remember his no chance opportunity at Georgia and rain bad things down on the dawgs when he becomes a gator.