Ever since JT Daniels has been declared healthy back in the regular season the great debate in Athens has been growing, and after a big loss in the SEC Championship game the Stetson Bennett versus JT Daniels discussion has finally come to a head at the University of Georgia. However, even though Nick Kayal does believe JT Daniels is a better overall quarterback than Stetson Bennett, he thinks it will take more than a change at QB for the Bulldogs to take down the Wolverines.
An underwhelming performance in the SEC Championship Game for Stetson Bennett has students, fans, and analysts calling for JT Daniels to be the starting quarterback on New Years Eve when Georgia takes on Michigan in the Capital One Orange Bowl. However, Nick believes a lot more than who is playing quarterback for the Dawgs has to change in three weeks if Georgia wants to advance to the National Championship game. Nick said earlier today during the Nick Kayal Show that “Bill O’Brien schooled Dan Lanning. Nick Saban out prepared Kirby Smart. The Bama offensive line stonewalled Georgia’s front seven, and when Georgia got to Bryce Young they couldn’t get him down. All of that has to change in the next three weeks against Michigan, and hopefully, potentially against Alabama.” Nick’s main point is, and he says this next, “It’s not just the quarterback.” Georgia’s defense wasn’t expected to hold Alabama’s offense to 7 points in the SEC Championship game, even though they only allowed 6.9 per year, but that doesn’t mean it was okay for them to give up over 30 in the biggest game of the year up until that point. Georgia’s running game was the bread and butter of their offense all year, but the Dawgs only managed to gain 109 yards on the ground against the Tide. It’s not just a Stetson Bennett problem for Georgia that can be fixed with a JT Daniels substitution. There are plenty of things that the Dawgs have to fix if they want to hoist a National Championship trophy at the end of the season.
Stetson Bennett will get a lot of the blame if he remains Kirby’s guy, and doesn’t deliver a National Championship to Athens for the first time since 1980, but the only person who will receive more blame is Kiby Smart for not making the change. However, if it does happen, if Georgia does waste what looked like a magical season in the making, before we all start to point fingers, let’s think about what and who else could be better too.