Dawgnation’s Connor Riley joined Dukes & Bell for his weekly appearance and talked about if Kirby Smart and Stetson Bennett’s relationship is strained heading into the National Championship game on Monday night?
When asked if Bennett and Smart’s relationship is strained.
“Strained isn’t the word I would use, Stetson always sort of had this relationship with Kirby and with the coaches, he’s been upfront and honest. It’s not this rosey player coach relationship that they have pointed out, they’ve butted heads at times, Stetson didn’t necessarily agree with Todd Monken benching him in the 2020 season,” Riley said. “And that’s natural to understand, no one wants to get benched. Stetson is a different type of player that we view him through this lens because he’s not this five star robot that goes through things.”
Riley talked about the trust that Smart has in Bennett.
“Both these guys got benched during their college careers and that forces you to look at things differently and really go through a lot of adversity because these guys love football. Stetson has said time and time again the only thing he has ever thought about doing is playing football and to have that taken away, I think it forces you to look at things differently and view things through a different lens. Obviously he’s got to be better than he was in at the end of the second quarter and obviously in the third quarter but I can tell you right now there’s no one that Kirby Smart trusts more in the world when this team needs a win or needs to make a big play than Stetson Bennett in this program right now.”
