Kirby Smart addresses Stetson Bennett, J.T. Daniels situation after Alabama loss

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart had to answer questions about why Stetson Bennett played over JT Daniels against Alabama.

Kirby Smart has the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff. However, the head coach isn’t free of criticism.

The Bulldogs were soundly beaten by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game as quarterback Stetson Bennett struggled to get the offense going.

Now Smart is facing questions about his handling of the quarterback situation. He’s stuck with Stetson Bennett but fans and media wanted to know if he even considered putting former five-star passer JT Daniels in the game as Georgia struggled against the Crimson Tide.

Did Kirby Smart think about putting JT Daniels in over Stetson Bennett

“No, we never discussed that on the headphones,” Smart said, per the Athens Banner-Herald. “Obviously, we have to play better in a lot of areas, but to put any part of that blame or all that blame on Stetson, there’s a lot more to it then that. We’ve got to play better around him. We’ve got to play better on special teams, defense, really all facets of the game. There were some really, really, really good throws last night by Stetson. Some throws that only his guy could catch the ball. He made some good plays. We’ve got to continue to work on the poor decisions on a couple of throws there that were picked off.”

As for the future of the quarterback battle, don’t expect one.

“I’ve addressed that already,” Smart replied to a question about changing quarterbacks.

Bennett has led Georgia for most of the season but he started out the campaign as Daniels’ backup. The USC transfer won the starting job out of fall camp. However, he dealt with a series of injuries over the first month of play and Stetson took hold of the top spot on the depth chart.

Bennett’s passer rating this year is 176.85 and he’s thrown for 2,325 yards and 24 touchdowns. He’s had seven interceptions.

Daniels has appeared in six games with 722 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions. His passer rating is 155.07.

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