Brian Kelly heaps praise on Stetson Bennett ahead of matchup

The LSU Tigers face their toughest test of the season on Saturday versus the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs. Led by a national championship-winning quarterback, Stetson Bennett, Georgia is an 18.5-point favorite in the SEC title game.

First-year Tigers head coach Brian Kelly praised Bennett during his press conference, acknowledging the former walk-on’s record since winning the starting job over five-star challengers.

“Yeah, remarkable,” Kelly said of Bennett’s growth and coaching. “He’s poised. The confidence on film in terms of what he exudes is amazing. I think he’s, like, 26-3 as a starter. He’s in full command of the offense, full command. That goes to his coaching, his teaching, his preparation obviously. It’s apparent in watching him how confident he is as the quarterback.”

Bennett is among the nation’s top candidates for this year’s Heisman Trophy, and playing for the team favored to win it all once again. He’s completing an impressive 67% of his passes, although he’s only thrown 16 touchdowns, while adding seven on the ground.

With Bennett at the helm, Georgia has been a well-oiled machine. The Bulldogs’ offense is averaging 38.3 points per game, just .3 points shy of their mark last year when they won it all.

Kelly knows Georgia’s team identity

Brian Kelly is only in his first year in the SEC but it’s not his first time playing Georgia. While he was at Notre Dame, Kelly took on Kirby Smart’s Georgia teams twice, losing both times in close games.

Ahead of the game on Saturday, he spotlighted the similarities between this Georgia team and the previous ones he coached against.

“Well, you know what you’re going to get,” Kelly said. “Kirby is still the head coach. They’re going to be disciplined. They’re going to be physical. There’s new coordinators. You know the kind of system you’re going to get, the preparation, the discipline, all those things are going to be part of Coach Smart’s team. All those things are going to be the same.

“But the personnel is different. The coordinators, the schemes are a little bit different.”

At the end of the day, Kelly knows he’s going to face an incredibly difficult challenge against Georgia.

“One thing they haven’t lacked is in recruiting,” the Tigers skipper added. “They’ve got outstanding personnel, really good players that we’ll have to prepare for.”

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.