What took so long? Georgia fans sound off on Kirby Smart's QB decisions
Despite the 31-24 win over Mississippi State, Georgia fans are furious with head coach Kirby Smart.
It’s easy to see why.
Smart finally made the switch from Stetson Bennett to JT Daniels on Saturday vs. Mississippi State, and it made all the difference. Daniels was so good, it had fans asking the same question: What took so long?
Even with Bennett struggling for most of the season, Daniels didn’t see any game action until facing Mississippi State.
With Daniels under center, Georgia turned in one of its best offensive performances in years.
Daniels 28-of-38 passes for 401 yards and four touchdowns. His arm looked electric and he made smart decisions with the ball.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Daniels became the first Georgia QB since Aaron Murray to clear 300 yards and four touchdowns in a single game. He’s only the fourth UGA quarterback ever to clear those benchmarks, joining Murray, Matthew Stafford and Cory Phillips.
JT Daniels is the first Georgia player with 300 passing yards and 4 passing touchdowns in a game since Aaron Murray in 2013 vs South Carolina. pic.twitter.com/waQvMUB9Sk
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 22, 2020
Here’s some of the reaction from fans who are frustrated with Smart’s choice to leave Daniels on the bench until now:
JT Daniels has 370 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 INTs
What does this say about Kirby Smart?
— UGA Football Live (@UGAfootballLive) November 22, 2020
It took JT Daniels one career game at uga to set the passing yards record for a QB under Kirby smart at uga.. glad Georgia kept him on the bench against Florida
— David Denson (@DTDenson80) November 22, 2020
Kirby Smart needs to explain why JT Daniels didn't start until tonight. If he was hurt, then say as much, because there's no way he's not the best QB when healthy.
— Patrick Schmidt (@PatrickASchmidt) November 22, 2020
How does Kirby Smart explain not starting @jtdaniels06 earlier in the season? His accuracy and pocket awareness compared to prior qb’s is night and day. Happy to see this for JT after such a tough injury last year but debut a little late. @CFBONFOX @CollegeGameDay
— John Skinner (@TheSkinnyonRE) November 22, 2020
I will never forgive Kirby Smart for not starting him sooner. Daniels could’ve been the difference against Florida. He could’ve been the difference against Bama if he was ready then. https://t.co/07KQOAhg8Y
— Jared Feinberg (@JrodDraftScout) November 22, 2020
Fire Kirby Smart for not starting this guy from the start. Should’ve been fired when he let Fields go to Ohio State for Jake Fromms overrated bum ass https://t.co/I0NcnFTofe
— How Many Moar (@SpursTrolI) November 22, 2020
This is a bad look for Kirby
— Tas Smith (@tasmithsr) November 22, 2020
Kirby Smart been hiding JT Daniels from us this whole time
— Willie Dynamite (@Kyle_Moreno77) November 22, 2020
Again, why wasn’t Georgia starting JT Daniels when he was cleared to play?
— Mike Candolora (@mikerenzulli2) November 22, 2020
JT Daniels should’ve been starting for Georgia all along
— Nick Hogan™ (@Nick_Hogan15) November 22, 2020
JT daniels should have been starting this whole time
— Jared💯 (@Jayyyl3) November 22, 2020
Me trying to figure out why JT Daniels has been on the bench through 6 games pic.twitter.com/YZ2oUCFpsu
— Kyle Bailey (@mkbailey5) November 22, 2020
All we’ll get from CKS is more coach speak bs. Daniels should have been playing as soon as he was cleared.
I only follow UGA because of JT transferring and I have no idea why Kirby is overly critical of JT but babies Stetson like a child. It’s like he was trying to force an issue out of stubbornness. He’s better of with a solid explanation instead of saying he looked off in practice. I know the kid is everything he’s hyped up to be and more.
we like smart but he really needs to stop running cook up the middle and maybe the rest of the backs—-instead if they must run then around the end and is daniels able to keep the ball once or two times to stop the rush against him
Yeah, sure. Daniels was a can’t lose option weeks ago and the coaches just ignored it. Whether it was his mobility or his confidence, or something else, he wasn’t ready. Tonight he was.
To all the naysayers — do you seriously think Smart just ignored the obvious? It sucks that Daniels wasn’t ready earlier on, but that’s how it shook out this year.
Smart lost the benefit of the doubt when he stuck with Fromm. His record with QBs has been suspect. Without the Fields debacle, I would probably buy that Daniels’s knee wasn’t ready.
What fields debacle? cks stayed with a true soph qb who just played in the nat’l champ game over a true fresh. yes, fields had/has elite talent….but he didn’t have it in 2018. also, it’s not like fromm played bad in 2018. 67% completion, 2,749 yds, 30 tds, 6 int and 171.2 qbr.
there’s a reason that fromm was a pre-season heisman candidate heading into the ’19 season. you’ve clearly forgotten that
Dear God. Everyone should’ve known this eruption of overreactions would occur. If you think Monken wasn’t given a say in who started at the position then you simply have no clue how paying an NFL coordinator $1 million-plus a year works. Kirby didn’t play JT for a reason, and to think that JT would perform the same two weeks ago against Florida is idiotic.
Go gators losers
Don’t rush kids back from injuries, look what happened to Dom and Zeus. Knee injuries are serious business.
The coaching staff isn’t dumb. We aren’t in practice. Is it frustrating? Sure. But you have to give the benefit of the doubt to people who get paid millions of dollars for these decisions.
i agree with the bulk of what you said, but i can’t get behind simply giving the benefit of doubt to those who get paid millions. in this particular case, i definitely can get behind cks and monken…but that’s a pretty broad statement you just made.
Sure, can’t be applied to all situations. I wasn’t meaning to say it in that way. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is these coaches aren’t idiots which is what it seems some people try to turn this JT decision into these coaches being incompetent.
Coaches do stupid stuff every week. To try and pretend that they always know best is just being naive.
What did I make up and how do you know I made it up.
That JT had a personal Dr that did not clear JT when the UGA staff did was reported more than once. I heard it on the Buck and Hut show on 680am. Buck Belue and Hutson Mask both former UGA QB’s. Both UGA insiders.
After watching him play, if you really believe J.T. Daniels was ready to play earlier in the season and Smart was just holding him out because he and Monken can’t see the obvious difference in ability, then you can’t be helped.
A player who is medically cleared isn’t also magically ready to just assume a starting spot.
how many times do you run to the right side and get stuffed befor you maybe figure out that there’s a whole Other half of the field you can at least try out once in a while.. the run game and run blocking was absolute trash ..the deep ball was very nice.. idk off landing or smart drew up the defensive game plane but that was piss poor excuse for coaching and scheming.. extremely disappointment of an oline performance 0 physicality in the run game
glad to see the vast majority of posts include a dose of reality for what the situation actually was/is
A comments section is more representative of fan opinion than an article full of cherry-picked tweets.
100%
UGA looked horrible outside the pass game. Which is odd because I would not of bet JT hitting those numbers without some run game. He proved a lot tonight. Kids been grinding since day one at USC. Some mean ass stuff was said about him at USC so when he transferred I was happy. This kid was a Trojan at birth and he got the raw end of the deal there
38 pass attempts…this must be a record for a Kirby Smart coached team. JT Daniels looked good in the pocket and can sling it. Dawgs…finally you’ve found your QB.
Some of the comments!
Kirby was simply putting JT Daniels health before everything else. Kirby wanted to be sure JT was fully healed.
Also, am I the only one who noticed that JT was limping late in the game.
Now you tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy peddling haters can spin that into Kirby rushed JT onto the field. That fake news conspiracy theory is as good as the first one…
No one ever said Smart was the QB whisperer. But few actually expected him to be completely tone-deaf. Cheer up dawg nation, you blew this season, but the nightmare is over.
Kirby was right to start those rag arms against Florida. It assured our win.