Stetson Bennett’s college football career so far has played out over five years. And 60 minutes.

Doubt has swirled around Georgia’s quarterback his entire life. He has performed well at some times, poorly at others, but the criticism and doubt have held steady the entire way.

Now, Bennett has the vindication that cannot be questioned. His MVP performances in the two biggest games of his life led Georgia to its first national championship since 1980.

That title game win over Alabama followed much the same track as Bennett’s entire career: doubt, followed by struggle, then eventual triumph.

Many fans questioned his ability to beat the Crimson Tide entering the contest. He then struggled through the first three quarters and made the mistake that seemed to swing the game in favor of Goliath.

Yet this David then got off the mat, threw a pair of touchdowns to win the game, and broke down in tears on the sideline as his childhood team claimed a title.

After all, proving people wrong is what he’s been doing for the past five years.

Bennett didn’t receive much interest coming out of Pierce County High School. His mother, Denise Bennett, said her son had Samford as the leading contender for his commitment. Then Georgia called with a walk-on offer. Bennett grew up a Georgia fan, but that isn’t the sole reason why he passed up other scholarships to play in Athens.

“The biggest thing is that it was at the top of the food chain,” Denise Bennett said. “It was just, ‘I want to go to the biggest (school) I can. I want to be able to see if I can do this.’ The fact that it was Georgia was icing on the cake. I think the issue was, ‘I’ve got to see if I can do this.”

Bennett’s mother felt a bit of hesitancy about her son heading to Athens. At the time, the Bulldogs featured two five-star quarterbacks, Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm, on the depth chart, leaving Bennett with no clear path to playing time.

But she left the decision up to her son. He wanted to prove he could compete with the best, and he spent the 2017 season in Athens. Eason and Fromm battled for the starting job, and Eason won. Yet he was hurt eight plays into the season, and Fromm took over, never relinquishing the starting role.

Yet as the two five-stars competed in the fall, one referee who worked just about every practice told UGASports he would play Bennett over both Eason and Fromm.

“That kid makes more throws. The players call him Johnny Football,” the referee said.

Bennett famously went on to portray Baker Mayfield on the scout team leading up to the Rose Bowl.

“Stetson Bennett’s a beast, man,” then-defensive coordinator Mel Tucker said. “Stetson Bennett puts a lot of pressure on our defense. He is extremely quick, he’s fast, and he can throw. He can throw in the pocket, he can throw on the run, and he’s a great competitor. He does a great job giving us a look, and it challenges our players. I’m glad we have him.”

That’s all Bennett appeared to be back then—a player who bumped into his ceiling as he tried to ascend beyond the scout team. He wanted more.

Bennett spent the next year, 2018, at Jones County Junior College in Mississippi. He arrived after tearing the labrum in his throwing shoulder in the spring. He had an up-and-down year as he recovered, throwing for 1,840 yards and 16 touchdowns, but plenty of turnovers as well.

Still, Bennett had proven something.

Even as limited as he was, Bennett had won a starting job and had led his team to victories. The opportunity to compete and win proved a heady elixir. In Bennett’s mind, he was more than just a scout team quarterback, and he had demonstrated that in his time at Jones.

After the 2018 season, Bennett explored his options again. He liked the offense and staff at the University of Louisiana, headed by head coach Billy Napier. Offensive line coach DJ Looney remembered Bennett from Looney’s time in Athens and spoke quite highly of the former Bulldog quarterback.

Denise and her son discussed the decision and agreed to play for Napier. Bennett appeared destined to be a Ragin’ Cajun. He then went to stay the night at a friend’s house with the intention of filing the paperwork the next day.

When Bennett woke up the next morning, he had several missed calls from Kirby Smart. Georgia wanted him back in Athens, this time on scholarship.

Bennett called his mother, who didn’t exactly feel enthusiastic about the idea of her son going back to Georgia. Denise was worried that Stetson would be disappointed again.

Georgia ultimately persuaded Bennett to come back. Despite her reservations, Bennett’s mother told him she supported him all the way.

In his first year back in Athens, Bennett backed up Fromm for the 2019 season. He played in mop-up duty, as well as a brief entry into the SEC Championship Game, when Fromm went down with an injury. He was the clear No. 2 quarterback.

The next year, Bennett felt he had a chance to compete for the starting job. Fromm had declared early for the NFL Draft, and the starting spot was wide open. D’Wan Mathis was recovering from surgery, and Carson Beck was an incoming freshman.

Then the Bulldogs added Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman and five-star USC transfer JT Daniels. Bennett’s path under center had been blocked once again.

In fact, the Georgia staff and new offensive coordinator Todd Monken told Bennett leading up to the 2020 season that they didn’t see playing time for him. He went from No. 2 to No. 5 on the depth chart.

“You talk about a bomb being dropped,” Denise Bennett said. “You worked all summer, you’re working your butt off, and you get called in and you’re basically told it’s not going to ever happen.”

Stetson’s mother debated even going to the 2020 season opener against Arkansas. She decided to make the trip, going with her son’s girlfriend and two of her sons.

The crew sat baking in the Arkansas sun when Luke Bennett turned to the family and said, “Um, he’s throwing.”

“What?” Denise Bennett recalled. “Luke said, ‘His helmet is on.’ We were stunned."

Bennett went into the game cold and saved the day for the Bulldogs against the Razorbacks, completing 20-of-29 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns. He had earned the starting job.

The 2020 campaign had ups and downs. The Bulldogs won often, but Bennett struggled in the second half against Alabama, as Georgia blew a lead and lost to the Crimson Tide.

Against Florida, Bennett went down with a nasty injury to his throwing shoulder. It didn’t retear his labrum, but he couldn’t feel much after his treatment. Denise Bennett said her son’s shoulder had been reduced to “mush”, but he came back in to finish the game as the best option available.

“That made my son look horrible,” Denise Bennett said. “It hurt your heart. I remember, I was not at that game—my daughter had a softball tournament in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I just remember us watching it on the iPad. It was just…your heart hurts.”

After that game, Daniels took over the starting role. He held that position the rest of the season and had a firm grasp on it heading into 2021. With Kirby Smart saying Carson Beck held the No. 2 position in spring camp, Bennett sat buried on the depth chart again.

So the question arises: why didn’t Bennett transfer? According to his mother, it had mainly to do with timing and academics.

“A good part of it was, ‘I just want to get that degree from Georgia.’ That was because he was so close,” Denise Bennett said. “By then, it was too late for spring, and then I think he was like, well, if I transferred, you wouldn’t get any playing time getting there in like June, so what’s the point?”

After the 2021 season opener against Clemson, Monken wanted to see Bennett in his office. Daniels had an oblique injury, and Bennett, not Beck, would be replacing him as the starter.

Daniels later returned to the starting role, then went down again with a lat injury. Bennett started against Arkansas on Oct. 2 and remained under center the rest of the season.

Still, the staff left open the possibility of Daniels returning with references to competition and earning it in practice. Bennett had the job, but it didn’t feel like it.

Bennett noted last month that five-stars "are going to get every opportunity to fail before a walk-on gets an opportunity to succeed.” He wasn’t referring specifically to Daniels, but he was making it clear that the expectations are different for the two.

Even as the Bulldogs kept winning, Bennett received plenty of criticism. He did make his fair share of poor throws and questionable decisions. But it seemed as if many were more preoccupied with the things Bennett did wrong rather than all he did right.

Denise Bennett wondered why the staff didn't seem more supportive of her son. She and her family didn’t escape the criticism, either. Denise Bennett said she and her daughter received hurtful direct messages relating to her son’s performance. It didn’t make her angry, but more sad and hurt.

“I am a mother of a child that I can't defend,” Denise Bennett said. “That’s not okay, that’s not my position in life. As a mother, you defend your children to the end. That’s my job. In this position, I can't. There’s no good that would ever come out of it. I can’t do it. That is so hard.”

As the leaves fell from the trees and Georgia racked up the wins, attention began to shift toward an SEC Championship rematch with Alabama and the College Football Playoff beyond that.

In Atlanta, Bennett again struggled against Alabama, throwing a pair of second-half interceptions. The talk of a quarterback change grew louder and more insistent. The question consumed hours of airtime and generated endless articles leading up to Georgia’s Orange Bowl matchup with Michigan: can Stetson Bennett lead the Bulldogs to a title?

Monken ignored the noise. In fact, when asked about Stetson prior to the Orange Bowl, Monken pleaded mea culpa.

“I think Stetson at times—I'm talking about me, I've probably undervalued his skill set,” Monken said. “We've tried to elevate guys that have talent on our roster, and we do that at every position, and some guys just combat that and fight and scratch and continue to play well and try to prove you wrong, and that's what Stetson Bennett did.”

Georgia’s offensive coordinator had previously and privately expressed that faith to Bennett’s mother when she texted him following the Georgia Tech game.

“It was very, just like, ‘Your son’s special.’ It was very, ‘I’m so proud of him, I was wrong about him,’” Denise Bennett recalled of the message. “I’m paraphrasing, but it was very much like, ‘I was wrong, I’m so proud of him; he’s doing great.’ That was nice, because I was just saying thanks for believing in him.”

Monken later gave a full vote of confidence during his press conference in Miami.

“There's no doubt in my mind we can win the National Championship,” Monken said. “There's no doubt in my mind we can win it with Stetson Bennett. There's no question.”

That comment brought a smile to Denise Bennett’s face. Her son broadened that smile with an offensive MVP performance against the Wolverines, completing 20-of-30 passes for 311 yards and three touchdowns.

Bennett’s career arc had brought him to a national championship game and a rematch with the Crimson Tide. One more time, he had to silence the doubts of those who said he couldn’t lead Georgia to the mountaintop.

Bennett had lost twice in two shots against the Tide. Why should anyone expect a different outcome in a third meeting?

“I don't know, there's a lot of things that go unsaid from that frustration,” Bennett said about outside criticism before the national title game. “It's the nature of the beast. You're the hero or the zero. I'm glad it was me instead of anybody else, because I can handle it. I can just shut it off and tell people to go blah, blah.”

In the first half, however, it appeared the doubters were on to something. Bennett and the Bulldogs struggled again, mustering just a pair of field goals and trailing 9-6 at halftime.

Just before the half, Denise Bennett felt the need to escape. She walked to the bathroom, looked up, and began to speak.

“I was just like, ‘Lord, I need some help here, Stet needs some help. This is bigger than football. Give me some peace,’” Bennett said. “I just had a big talk. I felt some peace. It wasn’t like I felt, oh my gosh, we’re going to win. It was just, ‘I’ve got this.’ That’s all I needed.”

Bennett’s mother returned to her seat and encountered Derion Kendrick’s mother sitting behind her. The latter expressed her confidence that the Bulldogs would come back, and Bennett would be a big reason as to why.

But after a Bennett fumble set Alabama up to take an 18-13 lead in the fourth quarter, the situation appeared bleak. The coaches who had passed on him, the fans and pundits who had questioned him—had they been right all along?

The cycle of Bennett’s entire career was coming to be mirrored in this one game. The initial doubt, the subsequent struggles, the vocal criticism. Yet each stage had eventually led to success.

So after the fumble that would have cemented his legacy as good but not good enough, Bennett set out to answer the questions once and for all.

On the next possession, Bennett gave Georgia the lead with a 40-yard touchdown pass to AD Mitchell. Then, after a third-down pass breakup by William Poole stopped the Tide, Bennett extended the lead to eight points with a 15-yard scoring toss to Brock Bowers.

After the fumble that looked as if it might doom the Bulldogs, Bennett went 4-for-4 for 83 yards and two touchdowns. His last two throws were both scores.

As the clock neared zero, Bennett broke down in tears on the sideline. All the frustration, the doubt, the struggles culminated in Indianapolis with Bennett hoisting a national championship trophy that so many great Georgia quarterbacks failed to win.

Denise Bennett bawled her eyes out in the stands as well. Strangely, she said she didn’t feel any sense of vindication or “I told you so.”

“My gosh, if you’re a person who put out something really nasty and mean, you don’t need someone to point that out,” Denise Bennett said. “You feel pretty stupid right now. I don’t need to point that out. You know that.”

Back at the hotel, Bennett’s mother watched her son bask in the glory of a title. He had gone from walk-on to junior college to MVP. He had been buried on the depth chart three times, been criticized through thick and thin. It all led to the sweetest vindication possible for the undersized signal caller from Blackshear.

At that point, there was nothing else to say.

"That’s when you just get on your knees and say thank you, because there’s no explanation. There’s none,” Denise Bennett said. “That’s when you see him working. When you can’t explain it, when you can’t have any way, you can’t draw it up, you can’t do anything, that’s when you can say, ‘Thank you.’”