It’s hard to know how much a coach’s comment on a particular player is. It’s very easy to recognize that “coaches don’t speak” often but sometimes it can help tell a story. What Kirby Smart had to say on the SEC coach teleconference falls into that category.
Georgia’s head coach has been asked dozens of times since the start of the Prison camp about former quarterback Jetty Daniels, and comments have been coming in. Daniels always works hard, always does well, and always competes. Smart was slammed in some similar comments on Wednesday, but it may have given some hints as to why Daniels has not been mentioned as a potential starter in 2020.
“The jetty is going out every day, working. I think over time its mobility gets better and it keeps moving,” Smart said. “He’s taking a lot of reputation and evolving and he’s competing, just like D’One and Carson.”
It is possible to read more in it, but it seems certain that Daniels may not be ready to come back from the knee injury he suffered in the 2019 season opener against Fresno State. Daniels suffered torn ACL and other ligaments and cartilage before half-time after completing 25 of 34 passes for 215 yards, touchdowns and interceptions. As a new man in 2018, Daniels completed 59.5 percent passes for his 2,592 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
He reported that he would relocate to Georgia in May and the NCAA immediately qualified him, putting Georgia in the thick of a quarterback battle. When Jamie Newman picked up early September 2, it seemed that Daniels was probably preparing to be Georgia’s starter. But after sharing the first team representative with Newman in the first scholarship and sharing him with D’One Mathis in the second compliment, Daniels began to get less work. Mathis got almost all first-team reputation in the team’s third compliment and seems to be a starter for the next two weeks before the 2020 season opens in Arkansas.
It wasn’t after the Arkansas game, one where Mathis initially struggled tremendously and Statson Bennett IV gave relief leading to a comeback effort, that Smart announced that Daniels had been medically cleared. At the time, he was able to participate in full exposure again but Smart also pointed out that Daniels would need to show that he could run the offense and compete without affecting the knee.
The former Five Star future had a heavy knee strain in practice last week and participated primarily as a scout-team quarterback during the game week, sharing second-team raps during the first practice of the week. Daniels’s smart commentary on dynamics and his progress will shed some light on how Bennett is actually standing in his way from making a real run for the starting job. It may be coach speaking, but this comment sounds a little different.
