Daily briefing: On Stetson Bennett, the Backyard Brawl and revisiting an old Notre Dame-Ohio State game
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Another first for Stetson Bennett
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett checks a large box in his career Saturday when the third-ranked Bulldogs play No. 11 Oregon. Bennett, a sixth-year player, may have led Georgia to the national championship in 2021, but he never has started a season opener for the Dawgs. Bennett came off the bench in the 2020 opener, throwing for 211 yards and two touchdowns to rally Georgia from a halftime deficit in a 37-10 win over Arkansas. Last season, he didn’t play a down in the opener in Charlotte, a 10-3 victory over Clemson in which JT Daniels led the offense. The season ended somewhat differently.
A rivalry renewal
Daniels has his ring, of course, and also the starting job at West Virginia on Thursday night, when the Mountaineers renew the Backyard Brawl with their former rival Pittsburgh. The schools, 76 miles apart, have played 104 games, but none since 2011, the last season they both played in the Big East. Daniels also used to suit up for USC, as did Kedon Slovis, the Panthers’ new starter. As interesting as the matchup of former teammates is, it takes a backseat to seeing the Pitt offense after the departure of coordinator Mark Whipple (Nebraska) and quarterback Kenny Pickett (the Steelers’ first-round pick). Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi took shots this summer at Whipple for Pitt’s struggles running the ball last season. I guess averages of 41 points and 487 yards of total offense, an 11-3 record and an ACC title weren’t enough. Slovis, a fourth-year player, is looking to regain his 2019 form. Maybe he can help pull Narduzzi’s foot out of his mouth.
‘Probably the greatest football show I ever saw’
Back when the Big Ten blackballed Notre Dame, the last conference member to agree to play the Catholic school was Ohio State. The buildup to the 1935 game at the Horseshoe between the Irish (6-0) and the Buckeyes (4-0) quickly got feverish. Five different radio crews broadcast the game to local and national audiences. Notre Dame rallied from a 13-0 deficit with three fourth-quarter touchdowns, two in the final two minutes, to win 18-13 in front of 81,000-plus fans. Bill Shakespeare’s 19-yard pass to Wayne Millner for the winning touchdown was so dramatic that the Notre Dame spotter for radio great Red Barber ran out of the press box in celebration, leaving Barber to guess on the air who caught the winning score. (He guessed wrong.) Even Ohio State coach Francis Schmidt described it as “probably the greatest football show I ever saw.” Nearly a century later, the Big Ten is wooing Notre Dame, the alma mater of Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith. Small world.