Columbia quarterback Stetson Bennett or Middle Tennessee State quarterback Stetson Bennett certainly doesn’t have the same ring as two-time national champion Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett.
Yet that could have been the future for the Bulldogs legend had he not persevered in Athens.
Following Bennett’s second straight national championship win with Georgia on Monday, in which he powered the Bulldogs to victory, a number of the 25-year-old’s old tweets began to circulate on Twitter. The primary focus of the posts that started to go viral was the quarterback tweeting out offers from programs that he received when first trying to get recruited to play in college.
For instance: “Honored to receive my second offer from Columbia University!! #GoLions!!!” Bennett wrote on March 11, 2016.
Or another, just a few months later: “Blessed to receive an offer from Middle Tennessee State University and @coachtf !!”
Naturally, the football programs recruiting Bennett in his final year of high school were nowhere near the caliber that Georgia was or is. However, Bennett also was not exactly the same player today as when he first began his college career.
Rather than attend Columbia or Middle Tennessee, Bennett opted to walk on at Georgia, not once but twice. In his second stint in Athens, he finally had his chance to shine and he took advantage of it, becoming a centerpiece of back-to-back title teams.
On Monday night in Los Angeles, Bennett was more brilliant than ever. He completed 18-of-25 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns, in addition to rushing for another 39 yards and two scores. The Bulldogs stepped on the gas and never looked back, downing upstart TCU, 65–7.
Georgia capped off its undefeated season and Bennett capped off a rollercoaster of a college career that surely would’ve seemed improbable to even the quarterback himself in 2016. Now he’ll set his sights on proving his doubters wrong in the NFL, a feat that would only make his old tweets all the more satisfying.
