Any concerns regarding quarterback JT Daniels after he missed last week with an oblique injury were quashed Saturday night against South Carolina.

In a major way.

The junior took the start and Georgia’s offense flourished. Daniels completed 23 of 31 passes for 303 yards and three scores to lead the second-ranked Bulldogs to an easy 40-13 win.

“I definitely was very comfortable, and that’s a credit to Ron Courson (head trainer) and his medical staff. I’ve had muscle pulls, strains, and tears, and never had one heal so fast,” Daniels said. “(Saturday), a lot of it was just taking what the defense was giving us and what Coach (Todd) Monken calls. Coach gives me input for what I run and what I like. This defense was similar schematically to UAB in a couple of areas.”

Daniels said he knew fairly early in the week that he was going to be able to play.

Nevertheless, Stetson Bennett also had a good week of practice, and according to head coach Kirby Smart, the plan was to play both quarterbacks.

Bennett entered the game on Georgia’s third offensive possession. He threw an interception on the second play.

“We told them, I guess it was Thursday or Friday, we called them in and said, 'Hey, look, you're both going to play. We think JT is healthy enough to go, but we're going to play you, Stetson,” Smart said. “It's an unfortunate deal. (Brock Bowers') route was a little shallow, and he probably shouldn’t have thrown it there. He threw it a little high, it sailed on him, and it got picked. Unfortunate for Stetson, but he did have a good week of practice. I've said it all along, and I continue to say it and stand by it, I have a lot of confidence in our quarterbacks—a lot of confidence in our quarterbacks. I can't say that I've ever had as much confidence in three or four guys that I've ever had. Stetson earned that right, and it just didn't work out."

If Daniels was feeling any ill effects from the injury, it certainly did not show.

Even after taking a hard hit during a first-half sack, Daniels bounced up and continued to play.

The only moment that left some fans wondering came in the third quarter, when he passed up what looked to be an easy touchdown run to attempt a pass to tight end John FitzPatrick.

The pass fell incomplete. But on the next play, Daniels tossed the ball to James Cook, who strolled in from 4 yards out.

The touchdown pass was the third of the night for Daniels, who threw scoring strikes of 43 and 38 yards, respectively, in the first half to Jermaine Burton and Adonai Mitchell.

Georgia now has five scoring passes of over 35 yards in its past two games.

Daniels' lone mistake came late in the third quarter, when he was intercepted by Jaylen Foster while trying to get the ball to Bowers.

Despite the solid offensive performance, the Bulldogs were a little sloppy in the second half. Daniels threw that interception and running back Kendall Milton lost a fumble.

“I’m always going to look at the film before I say anything,” Daniels said. “I don’t really think it was an effort thing, as much it was an attention to detail thing. There was the execution error on my part with the interception, the Kendall error I didn't see, but the small execution errors, that’s what we did so well in the first half that maybe we didn’t do so well in the second.”