Career Stat Recap of Stetson Bennett

From walk-on to walking off with two national titles, we have all heard the Stetson Bennett stories before.

Bennett played 42 games for the Bulldogs and finished with a 29-3 record as a starter. This past season he was named the winner of Burlsworth Trophy and finished fourth in the Heisman voting. The fourth-place finish was the best by a Bulldog true quarterback (Frank Sinkwich and Charley Trippi lined up as quarterback often in games, but that was never their position). Bennett was a team player, but individually had a heck of a career. Here are some of the game, season, and career numbers that the mailman delivered…

First here are his career stats at Georgia season-by-season:

The one thing which stands Bennett out compared to any quarterback in Georgia history is what he did in the CFP playoffs. He became the first player ever to win offensive most valuable player awards in two semifinal and two championship games. Check out these impressive numbers when the games counted the most.

His six total touchdowns (4 pass, 2 rush) in the 2023 CFP Championship game tied Joe Burrow’s record in LSU’s 2020 CFP Championship over Clemson. It also tied Georgia’s record for touchdown responsibility in any game. D.J. Shockley had six in the 2005 season-opener against Boise State.

Here are some more accomplishments.

Starting off with pass attempts by a Bulldog. Bennett ended up with 454 in the 2022 season and surpassed David Greene’s 2003 total of 438. He also finished sixth all-time in career attempts with 923. His career-high in a game was 43 set this past season in the comeback win against Missouri.

Bennett completed a school record 310 passes in 2022. The old record was held by Eric Zeier’s total of 269, set in 1993. The 310 are also the 12th highest in SEC history. For his career, Bennett finished with 601 completions. He finished fifth in Georgia history and was just 20 completions shy of Jake Fromm’s fourth-place total.

What about completion percentage? Bennett broke the season and career records at Georgia. Both of those records were once held by Hutson Mason.

In terms of the all-important yards per attempt stat, Bennett’s season total of 9.09 is good enough for fifth in Georgia history. Last season, his total of 9.97 was third highest. Matt Robinson’s 10.88 in 1976 and Aaron Murray’s 10.09 are the only averages higher in a single season. But for a Georgia career, Bennett is now Georgia’s top Dawg.

Bennett finished the 2022 season with 4,126 yards passing. In the CFP Championship, Bennett surpassed Murray’s 2012 total of 3,893 yards passing to became Georgia’s record holder. For a career, he was never going to break the three career leaders for Georgia. Those three were all four-year starters and all of them are in the top-six in SEC history. But fourth place is not that bad.

A funny stat on Bennett is that his yards passing total this season is the most by a Georgia senior. His 2,862 last season was the fourth most by a senior. That is because he was technically a senior last season as well.

Bennett had ten pass plays for Georgia that went 60 yards or more. Three of them came in the 2021 UAB game. In that game, he had his longest pass play. Late in the first quarter, Bennett hit Brock Bowers for an 89-yard pass play. Not only was it Bennett’s longest pass play, but it is also tied for the eighth longest pass play in Bulldog history.

Bennett is only one of eight quarterbacks in the conference to throw for over 4,000 yards in one season.

Bennett threw for a career-high 398 yards in this season’s Peach Bowl against Ohio State with 190 of them coming in the fourth quarter. In the CFP Championship against TCU, he threw for 304. Check out where he ranks in terms of the most 300-yard pass games in a season and in a career.

Bennett's 2022 individual numbers as a whole surpassed the majority of his 2021 numbers. However, in 2021 he had more touchdown passes.

His 66 touchdown passes during his career went to 16 different Dawgs. They went to wide receivers, tight ends, running backs and even a player who primarily played defense. Here is how he divided them.

Of the 42 career games he played for the Bulldogs, he threw at least one touchdown in 30 of them. One the negative side, he threw at least one interception in 14 of them.

Here are the game totals in which he threw a certain number of touchdowns or interceptions and what Georgia’s record was in those games.

The games and team records above represent games in which he threw at least one pass and not necessarily starts. He played in one game in which he did not throw a pass.

Here are some other interesting breakdowns...

That was down-by-down, but what about quarter-by-quarter?

Bennett had legs, too. Bennett scrambled to extend passing plays and at times took off running. His longest career run went for 64 yards against Auburn this season. It was a longer score than any of the Bulldog running backs this season. His ten touchdown rushes was tied for the team lead with Kenny McIntosh.

In terms of Georgia quarterbacks who scored passing and rushing touchdowns in the same game:

One last stat that has been asked before was to compare Bennett and former Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge.

Cover photo credit - Kathryn Skeean