Georgia is facing its first loss of the season in the midst of a rescheduled bye week, and coach Kirby Smart has shared several updates about the quarterback position.

There are mixed messages among fans and media with regard to QB Stetson Bennett IV, as the quarterback has received both support and criticism.

With the off week, some have wondered if it allows more time for JT Daniels to get a closer look?

“We look at the off weeks as an opportunity to get everybody better, so it will be no different at any position in terms of the reps we are able to get,” Smart said. “During a game week, we give ones 78 percent of the reps, twos 20-30 percent of the reps, but then our threes get a lot of reps during the week because they go against the other units. This week, we will get to get a lot of guys reps. JT will get reps, D’Wan (Mathis) will get reps, Stetson (Bennett) will continue to get reps. We try to develop our roster — that’s the way we look at it. It doesn’t change, it just gives a chance to give more guys work and see where they are in their progress. That’s true at every position and true at quarterback.”

Daniels’ situation is a bit unique because he was medically cleared several weeks ago, but has not appeared on the cusp to enter a game recently. What’s the difference between being medically cleared and ready to enter a game?

“Medically cleared is saying he can go out and get tackled and play football,” Smart said. “It’s unique to that position because the quarterback doesn’t go live — maybe in fall camp some — but he doesn’t go live until real game time and then everything else is revolved around who we think gives us the best chance to win. That’s ultimately the decision you have. The toughest thing is getting enough reps once you are down the road of being able to get guys prepared for a game. You can’t prepare three or four quarterbacks to play in a game. You just don’t get enough time to do that. We do get a lot of time this week to compete, have reps. That’s every position. I look at it as every guy that is going out there is getting a chance to get better on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and that is the way we have always done our off week. That doesn’t change.”

The Bennett situation is also complicated because he helped Georgia get a lead over Alabama, but then the Bulldogs were shut out in the second half. There appears to be a struggle among fans and media to figure how much blame to place on Bennett in regards to the offensive production.

“Like I have talked about before, I feel great about Stetson,” Smart said. “He’s done a good job of managing the situations we have put him in. He made a couple of bad decisions. Some of them he didn’t have to pay the dividend for. He threw a couple of balls that he shouldn’t have thrown based on the coverage they gave us, but those weren’t necessarily the ones that got picked. Sometimes, you get batted balls, they get tipped, and you get picked. Sometimes, you throw a ball — you know he missed Jermaine (Burton) over the middle a little bit there, a little bit out of his reach. Maybe Jermaine gets his hands on it more. It’s just unfortunate they picked it. But the ones that don’t get picked concern me more where we throw into coverage, and we had a couple of those. So, it’s one of those things he’s done a really good job executing on third down. He’s hit some guys that have dropped some balls on third down, but we’ve become a better third down team since he has been in there. We’ve got to continue to improve on that. Everybody around him has to continue to improve.”