re: Stetson Bennett’s mysterious Rams absence likely to stretch through entire season

I don’t think many realize the amount of verbal abuse he likely heard from 2020 on. Hell, even after a championship, people criticized him for staying another year. Just because people finally accepted him and celebrated him at the end of 22, do you really think a person forgets the previous nastiness? I imagine the underlying bitterness becomes quite toxic.

It is interesting to me also that Smart obviously used public criticism of his play to motivate him. While it seemed to work well, it also set up an adversarial relationship which one would imagine cut off an avenue of trust in being able to express any deep problems. Bennett basically mentioned a few times that he couldn’t trust his coaches to have his back if he screwed up on the field. I also remember an interview where Bennett talked about getting the phone call to sign a scholarship with UGA, where they told him they would give him a real chance to compete for the job, and then promptly signed a number of transfers and buried him on the depth chart. So he probably started his second stint at UGA in a place of deep mistrust of most of the coaching staff.

So you end up with a lot of stress from being in a highly public position and no particularly good outlet to talk about that stress without fearing the job would be taken away.

I’ve noticed this year, Smart doesn’t say anything but praise for his QB publicly. I assume because he realizes different strokes for different folks. But if Bennett is paying any attention, that has to rankle just a bit.