“They missed him; we missed him”: When Kirby Smart lauded Stetson Bennett for overcoming anonymity 

Stetson Bennett is undoubtedly one of the best players Kirby Smart has ever had at Georgia. The quarterback led the Bulldogs to consecutive national championship titles. What's most intriguing and fascinating about his story is that he joined the program as a walk-on.

Kirby Smart had an interview with ESPN’s Rece Davis a day after the Bulldogs' second-straight national championship title success in January 2023. He was asked whether the incredible story of Stetson Bennett at Georgia would be a selling point for the program to potential recruit.

“His story is pretty cool,” Smart said (1:31). “We'll always sell Georgia, and I don't think Stetson would be happy if I just sold him. He would say ‘This whole team was really special. Sell the team coach, because the team is bigger than any individual.’

“What he accomplished, what he overcame, is just incredible. In today's day and age of recruiting, you don't miss anybody, right? You don't miss guys. They call them the country. ‘They're unbelievable, they don't miss anybody.’ And they missed him. We missed him. We did it wrong and all he did was overcome all of it.”

Stetson Bennett achieved what no other quarterback ever has in the history of Georgia football. He stands as one of the biggest misses in history for high school recruiters.

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Kirby Smart says Stetson Bennett's story won’t repeat itself

It's common in college football and other sports for fans to link an upcoming talent to a former great.

This is mostly because of some similarities in their stories or playing styles. With the way Stetson Bennett's story went at Georgia, Kirby Smart believes nothing like that will ever happen again.

“I remember a wise man I used to work for for a long time at Alabama,” Smart said (2:28). "He said, ‘They'll always say that that person is the exception.’ And he is the exception. Like people would say ‘He's the next Stetson Bennett, you got to take him. He's going to be a great player; he's going to be the next Stetson Bennett.’

“People used to say it when I came to Georgia and I was nowhere near as good as he's been. But there's a ‘Hey, he's the next Kirby Smart.’ There's no next Stetson Bennett. He was the exception and he did unbelievable things and what an incredible person he is.”

Stetson Bennett threw for 8,429 yards and 66 touchdowns in 42 games during his tenure at Georgia. The quarterback also won the Manning Award and the Burlsworth Trophy while also earning a Second-Team All-SEC in the 2022 college football season.