![]() ![]() But what are you going to do, sit there and in it? Get up and go back to work.”Īt summer camps before his senior year, Stet put on performances that the family should have warranted more attention. We had a saying, ‘It ain’t easy, but it’s fair.’ Then all of a sudden you feel like it wasn’t fair. Often, he got no further than a graduate assistant who was willing to look at the video for a brief time. He had an iPad loaded with Stet’s game videos, stopping at several FBS programs and trying to talk his way in. He led his school to three straight state playoff berths, but his small stature (generously listed now at 5'11") kept major college recruiters away.Īn acknowledged “unrealistic coach and daddy,” Stetson III at one point set off on a two-week driving trip through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas to market his son as high-level college quarterback material. He put up big numbers, earning his nickname, The Mailman, for always delivering. By high school, he was a star in the making at relatively small Pierce County High. I felt like football broke the cycle for our family.”Īn outstanding athlete, Stet excelled throwing and running (and playing baseball). “Football educated my daddy, and he had five kids and we’re all educated. “I felt like I owed football,” says Stetson III, whose father, Buddy, was a football coach. Even by south Georgia standards, this was intense. He bought an acre lot next to his pharmacy and turned it into a football field, organizing a team and feeding the boys peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before putting them through a Bible devotional, study hall, a CrossFit workout and, finally, practice. That was all the motivation Stetson III needed to become a youth league coach. Three days later, Stetson IV arrived.īy age 3, Stetson IV was telling his dad he wanted to play quarterback at Georgia. ![]() Stetson III remembers a very pregnant Denise thinking she was going into labor during a Georgia-Kentucky game on Oct. Stetson Bennett wasn’t just born to be a Bulldog he was nearly born in Sanford Stadium, where his parents had season tickets. Last season Bennett led the Bulldogs to their first national title since 1980. It’s been a hell of a victory lap since he helped deliver Georgia’s first national championship in 41 years last January at Lucas Oil Stadium: getting the celebratory first sip from a family friend’s bottle of 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle flying as a celebrity guest inside a jet with the Blue Angels being asked for selfies outside the Sistine Chapel in Rome and in front of Michelangelo’s David in Florence during a May study-abroad trip and receiving name, image and likeness opportunities commensurate with being the biggest man on campus. He also was fourth in the nation in pass efficiency.Īnd now he’s back for the encore, a sixth-year senior ready for a final season in the role he’d wanted since he was a toddler. Once the small-fry walk-on who walked off after one season went to junior college and returned only to be serially demoted, he became the Offensive MVP of the College Football Playoff championship game after earning the same honor in the Orange Bowl semifinal blowout against Michigan. In the annals of underdog athletic triumphs, Bennett’s 2021 season ranks right up there. Stet is a star quarterback now, evolving into the position and the persona, a disorienting reality after years of being doubted and considered disposable. I’m still reminding him to get his oil changed. “Anonymity is gone,” says his mom, Denise. Stetson Fleming Bennett IV becoming a college heartthrob and timeless hero to the masses who follow Georgia football still takes some getting used to, for him and his family back home in Blackshear, Ga., four hours south of Athens. Here's how you can get Sports Illustrated’s Football Preview today!
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