“Maturity,” Stetson Bennett said recently, by way of tribute to his teammates on Georgia’s offense. “We’ve got mature guys.”
He should know.
Truth is, not many players in college football are as mature as Bennett, both in terms of mental approach, and the unavoidable fact that by the typical standards of tertiary education, the Bulldogs quarterback is a pretty old dude.
Bennett, a sixth-year senior who’s still slinging about a college pigskin due to the combination of a redshirt, a COVID-exemption and a “goodbye-hello again” transfer jaunt, recently celebrated his 25th birthday with an early night, before downing Florida the next day to keep the Bulldogs rated No. 1 in the country.
He’s older than some National Football League quarterbacks. Scratch that, he’s older than a ton of NFL QBs. He’s older than Justin Herbert, who is already an established star, and Jalen Hurts, who’s giving the league MVP award a surprising shake. He’s just a couple of months younger than Kyler Murray, who was selected first in an NFL Draft that took place 42 months ago.
He was born in the same year (1997) as Lamar Jackson, who has been around long enough and is good enough that his next contract figures to land him shy of a million bucks a week.
Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, Zach Wilson and Justin Fields are young enough that Bennett might have stolen their place in the lunch line had they gone to high school together. Trey Lance, the second-year starter for San Francisco until his injury? He’s a mere baby by comparison, at 22 years old.
Georgia has benefited from Bennett’s wizened ways and veteran’s philosophy over the past couple of seasons, his nous and level-headedness an advantage head coach Kirby Smart has been thankful for on a weekly basis. Experience under center is always a guaranteed edge for the Bulldogs, until, maybe, this week.
For as Georgia prepares to take on second-ranked Tennessee in what can only be described as the biggest blockbuster of the season so far — a humdinger featuring No. 1 vs. No. 2 in Athens — the guy getting ready to make plays for the other side, also undefeated, has seen and done plenty, too.
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Hendon Hooker, now widely regarded as a Heisman Trophy favorite, is also in his sixth season of college ball, and, like Bennett, has gone through adversity and struggle. Hooker knows that in a season of opportunity for the Volunteers, this is the biggest showcase of all, unless victory leads to even bigger occasions ahead.
Hooker will be 25 in January, which naturally means he is another who would be right at home, age-wise, in a fireside chat of NFL signal-callers. For what it’s worth, Bennett is older than 16 pro QBs who have taken snaps this season. Hooker is older than 15, only Carolina Panthers backup Jacob Eason coming between this weekend’s rivals on the birthdays list.
Before this breakthrough season highlighted by a thrilling victory over Alabama that Tennessee might never stop celebrating, Hooker battled through four years at a Virginia Tech program that was in flux, then one more in Knoxville that gave first indication of the dramatic rise to come.
He has found his place and found his preferred target, precocious receiver Jalin Hyatt, and he’s finding weekly appreciation from the Tennessee coaching unit too, after 21 touchdowns and just one interception on the season.
“We have that kind of bonding rapport now where we can call anything,” Vols QB coach Joey Halzle told reporters. “He trusts that what we’re putting in the game will make sense and then if it doesn’t work for either one, we can pull it. Which makes it a lot easier to game-plan on the front end.”
As for Bennett, he walked on at Georgia, transferred away to Jones County Junior College, came back to deputize Jake Fromm, won the starting job, lost it and won it again, and was even linked with a transfer away after winning the national championship last year.
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He’s still around, obviously, with the rather unique feel of a player who could soon boast an incredible résumé of dual national titles and whose NFL Draft prospects are climbing, yet still has a Rudy-esque sense about him.
“Well, he was a little bit better than Rudy, I’ll say that,” Smart said on Duke basketball icon Mike Krzyzewski’s Sirius XM show earlier this year. “What does it say about his character that he stuck around, and he kept working to get better? That’s what you’re supposed to do in life, overcome hurdles and obstacles.”
The stories of Bennett and Hooker are a nice reminder in a way, that college football is not, and was never supposed to be, one size fits all. That it is a place to grow, and that the growth doesn’t have to happen all at once.
If, amid the dizzying flurry of relocations that continue to take place through the portal, a truth emerges that college football remains a place where the dips in a player’s career arc can be ridden out and learned from, that is no bad thing.
If the possibility of second and third chances for those who thrive a little later, or take time to find their optimal spot, means the likes of Bennett and Hooker eventually get their moment, the game wins.
This weekend, though, only one of them can.
