This team hasn't had a difference maker at QB since Aaron Murray. There hasn't been an issue recruiting highly rated QBs, they all just seem to either not work out or they don't get used and they transfer somewhere else and dominate.
After Murray graduated, Hutson Mason was the QB in 2014. Brice Ramsey was a highly rated recruit on the roster, but he turned out to be so bad that he ended his college career as the punter. Mason was like most of the rest of em. He was fine, but wasn't gonna win you any games with his arm, which is a shame since Todd Gurley, Sony Michel and Nick Chubb were all in the backfield that year.
In 2015, Grayson Lambert, who lost his starting job on a terrible Virginia team transferred in and was starter. He was the definition of mediocre. He had one of the best QBed games in UGA history against South Carolina where he set the record for completion percentage in FBS history, but that was a huge outlier. Backup that year was Brice Ramsey again and some dude named Faton Bauta who was supposed to be the next Tim Tebow. Bauta got the start against Florida and was terrible, and Richt left him out there to die, and that was huge factor in why Richt was fired at the end of the season.
In 2016, Jacob Eason was a 5 star recruit coming in, but Lambert was the starter to open the season. Lambert was his same mediocre self and Eason was the QB going forward, he had flashes, but he was far from impressive.
In 2017, Eason opened the season as the starter, but got hurt in the first half of the first game and Jake Fromm took over and started every game from that moment until the 2019 Sugar Bowl where he declared for the draft after 3 years. I thought he did as well as you could reasonably expect a true freshman to do in 2017, he looked better than Eason ever did, but he was pretty much the same QB in 2019 as he was in 2017, never really got better. And he was a game manager at best. During this time, Justin Fields was the highest rated recruit UGA had ever landed, but he up and transferred to Ohio State following his freshman year because he was not being used correctly and he went on to shine at OSU.
When Fromm left, and Fields in Columbus, the 2020 QB situation was gonna be touch and go. Jamie Newman transferred in from Wake Forest, but someone gave him some terrible advice and he opted out of the 2020 season to focus on the draft. Spoiler alert, he went undrafted and I don't think he's a part of any NFL organization. JT Daniels also transferred in from USC and Carson Beck was a 4 star recruit coming in. JT Daniels was hurt to start the year, so Dwan Mathis opened the season as the starter. He was benched after the first half of the first game for former walk on Stetson Bennett. JTD was cleared to play a couple weeks into the season, but he never saw the field until the team already had two losses and the season was over, but Daniels looked better than any QB at UGA since Aaron Murray the 4 games he started at the end of 2020.
So, entering 2021, UGA fans had more optimism with their QB situation since Aaron Murray was still here. JT Daniels was back, Stetson Bennett is an experienced backup. 4 star Carson Beck still on the roster and from all reports, had a very good camp, and Brock Vandagriff was a 5 star recruit coming in. Season gets off to a shakey start for JTD against Clemson, the receiver room was decimated and Clemson's defense was stout, but got the win. He played some against UAB, but not much. Looked while he was in there. Looked great against South Carolina. Looked great the first quarter against Vanderbilt, but he had a lat injury that was supposed to just be an issue for a couple weeks, but he hasn't seen a significant snap since then. It's been all Stetson Bennett since then, and for the second time in 4 years, UGA is heading into the NCG against Bama where they matchup well at every position other than QB.
Daniels is healthy now, has been for a while, but Kirby and Monken say they believe Bennett gives them the best chance to win, but I have eyes and I've seen em both play, and Daniels is clearly the better QB. We've all see this story before. JTD still has another year of eligibility and still has NFL aspirations, he's gonna transfer somewhere and ball out, Carson Beck is as good as gone too, and in 2022, Stetson Bennett(who was also a part of that 2017 team BTW) somehow also has another year of eligibility left is gonna be back, and he's gonna have a 5 star in Vandagriff and an incoming high 4 star in Gunner Stockton(who I think will be better than Vandagriff FTR), and we'll get to see another year where the best QB on the roster isn't playing.
Is there any other top team that has realistic natty aspirations that just can't ever seem to get it right at QB? That was the case at LSU for a while, but then Joe Burrow happened.
Why do these highly ranked QB recruits keep coming when they see what has been going on with the position for a while at the program now?
There's a talented group of receivers that are going to waste because a former walk on QB was probably undervalued coming out of HS(Bennett should have been a 3 star, I mean he is in the top 10 all time for high school passing yards in the state of Georgia). Bennett is a good story, and I'm sure Kirby sees a lot of himself in Bennett being a white boy from a small town in south Georgia that wasn't highly rated coming out of high school, but at some point, we need a difference maker at QB, and I think we have one on the roster, fucking use him.
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