Aaron Murray calls for Stetson Bennett to be named Heisman finalist, names him greatest QB in Georgia history
The Georgia Bulldogs throttled the LSU Tigers in the 2022 SEC Championship Game on Saturday night, 50-30. Stetson Bennett IV diced up the LSU defense, completing 23 of 29 passes for 274 yards, while tossing in four touchdowns and no interceptions. The performance was good enough for him to bring home MVP honors in this year’s SEC Championship Game. Following the beatdown of the Tigers, former Bulldog great Aaron Murray took the time to heap some heavy praise on Bennett on Twitter.
Check out the tweet below, as Murray declared that not only is Bennett going to New York City for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, but that he’s also the greatest quarterback in Georgia football history.
Those are high words of praise, by anyone’s standards. Especially coming from a man that peppered his name all over the Georgia record books. Murray is Georgia’s all-time passing yardage leader with 13,166 yards during his prolific career. That one will be extremely difficult for any other quarterback to ever break.
All four of Murray’s seasons at Georgia rank among the top 10 most passing yards in a single season by a Bulldog quarterback, including 2012, when he threw for 3,893 passing yards–ranking first in program history.
Stetson Bennett has stamped his name in Bulldog lore forever
Let’s be honest. Under Bennett’s watch, Georgia football has ascended to heights the program was incredibly close to in the past few years, but they couldn’t quite get over the hump and win the national championship.
His performance in the second half against the Alabama defense in the 2022 National Championship Game will always be the stuff of legends and deservedly so. The breakthrough against Alabama did not come easy, but that’s a huge reason why the performance will forever be cemented in Bulldog football history.
While Bennett might not quite have the stats at other quarterbacks in Georgia football history, you could make the strong argument that few quarterbacks in college football history have had as good of a two-year run he’s had the past two years at Georgia.
In the upcoming College Football Playoff, Bennett will likely pass Matthew Stafford to rank fifth all-time on the Bulldogs’ career passing yardage list. Currently, the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder has thrown for 7,726 career passing yards at Georgia, just five yards short of Stafford (7,731 yards). If the Bulldogs can advance the national championship game again this year, he’ll have a chance to pass Jake Fromm, who ranks fourth all-time (8,224 yards).
This season, Bennett completed 68.1% of his passes for 3,425 passing yards, while tossing in 20 touchdowns and just six interceptions. As a runner, he’s rushed for 184 yards and seven touchdowns.
That mark of 3,425 passing yards in a single-season currently ranks him fourth-all time in school history. If Georgia can advance to the national championship game again, he could potentially get a chance to break Aaron Murray’s single-season passing yardage mark.
While there were some close calls along the way this year, Bennett has guided the Bulldogs to yet another undefeated regular season and that’s never an easy thing to do, especially in the SEC. For a former walk-on to accomplish what Bennett has during his college football career is simply unbelievable.
It’s truly something out of a movie script. And the script is not quite finished yet.
If he can wrap it up with back-to-back national championships in the upcoming College Football Playoff, there will be few other players in college football history with the resume of the man they call the “Mailman”.
No matter what happens in the upcoming College Football Playoff, there’s no question that Bennett has firmly cemented his legacy in the hearts of Georgia fans forever.