ATLANTA — Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett acknowledged Wednesday the difficulty of the task at hand as the Bulldogs look to become the first team to repeat as national champions in a decade.
“Man,” Bennett said, “those pats on the back feel good, you know?”
Last January, Bennett received a lot of “attaboys” as he took part in a parade celebrating Georgia’s first national championship in 41 years. The undersize former walk-on was hailed as the ultimate underdog story, having thrown a pair of touchdown passes to help beat Alabama in Indianapolis.
But rather than ride off into the sunset, the redshirt senior returned for a sixth and final season.
On Saturday, No. 1 Georgia will play No. 4 Ohio State in the College Football Playoff Semifinal Game at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Bennett said it’s tempting to read and listen to what’s said about you in moments of triumph. But he warned that it’s a trap.
“Good or bad, what they tell you, it’s not true,” he said. “And then you forget — like, you literally forget how you did it. And it’s the craziest thing in the world because you want to [remember], but you took so much time off that you’ve forgotten how to do the work to get there.”
Bennett said it’s important to hold onto the feeling of “when you were hungry and there really was no other option if you wanted to keep playing here but to win.”
“People lose track of that,” he said. “People lose track of how they felt before they won. They start to give more to the bright lights and all the shiny and the glittery stuff. And football’s not about shiny and glitter.”
Bennett went to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist earlier this month. He said it was an honor to be invited but insisted, “That’s not going to change the way I play.”
Bennett’s teammates — offensive lineman Broderick Jones, tight end Brock Bowers and running back Kenny McIntosh — all said they were anxious to play Ohio State.
“I’m really antsy,” Jones said. “I’m ready to play just because I don’t like sitting around waiting. I’m an impatient guy. I’m ready to get to the point.”
Bowers said it’s been hard waiting a month to play again.
But he said, “We have the drive.”
“I feel like there wasn’t really a dip in our performance at practice or anything,” he said. “And we’ve just been working all month. So I feel good about our preparation and everything.”
On Monday, Georgia coach Kirby Smart reflected on last year’s playoff run and how it all began with a loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game.
The loss, he said, “centered things” for his team.
Ohio State will have the same opportunity to refocus after losing to Michigan on the final weekend of the regular season.
“You recalibrate, and you look back, and sometimes the reality of your weaknesses pop up a lot more in a loss,” Smart said. “We like to say, ‘Why do you got to lose to learn?’ You shouldn’t have to do that, but it certainly is a wake-up call in teams I’ve been with. It recentered everybody and refocused everybody.
“Obviously we’ve tried to do that without that [loss]. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s just one of those things.”
Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said Wednesday that the team is “anxious” and players “have an edge.”
“You can tell even in practice, everyone’s got a chip on their shoulder,” linebacker Steele Chambers said.