re: Kirby Smart: Garbage Coach

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Really? What happened in 2020?

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Covid happened.

UGA's starter in fall camp withdrew due to covid a week or two in. (Jamie Newman). UGA's #2 came into fall camp injured (JT Daniels). That left UGA with Stetson Bennett and Dwan Mathis. Mathis got the starting nod but halfway through his first game it was clear he wasn't very good. So Bennett became the starter until Daniels got healthy.

In the UF game Bennett got hurt and Mathis came in and had to play. UGA was up 14-7 when Bennett went down (UGA later would intercept a pass and return it for a TD). Mathis came in and threw an immediate pick 6. Bennett tried to tough it out through the injury but was not able to play well due to being hurt. UGA had 1 first down in the rest of his series and the defense got very tired in the first half. Finally after starting the second half with an interception Bennett was done and Mathis played the rest of the game.

Depth is a part of football. Injuries happen. UGA would likely have been pretty good with Newman. They were pretty good with Daniels when he got healthy. They were pretty good with a healthy Bennett.

But having to go down the #4 guy against UF... even UGA doesn't have that kind of depth.

On the plus side, the experience Bennett got in 2020 likely helped UGA win titles in 2021 and 2022, so in the grand scheme of things it was probably worth it.