Georgia's Gunner Stockton has his skeptics, but is it too early to judge?

New York Times

5 days ago

ATLANTA — The swagger comes out on the field, say Gunner Stockton's teammates, and only on the field. Georgia's quarterback is as quiet everywhere else as he was last week at SEC media days, when Stockton ran through the gantlet giving clipped, nondescript answers with a wide smile but nothing more.
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There was at least one time, however, that Stockton showed some feeling. It was with a few local, Athens-based reporters, when one asked Stockton if he had heard what Paul Finebaum, the voice of the SEC, had said about him.
Stockton nodded, still smiling, but his eyes narrowed. Oh yes, Stockton had heard Finebaum, appearing on ESPN's 'SportsCenter' in May, say: 'Gunner Stockton is not an elite quarterback. He's serviceable and that is about it.'
Asked his reaction, Stockton looked at the reporter. 'It's like if somebody said you're a bad reporter. How would you take it?' he said.
Stockton then shrugged. 'But I take it like anybody else,' he said.
In defense of Finebaum, he's far from the only person doubting, or at least wondering, if Stockton is the answer for Georgia at quarterback. In the game and a half most of the world has only seen him play, Stockton was good at times and underwhelming at others. There is no assurance Stockton will be any good.
However, the skepticism, if it's based just on that game and a half, overlooks some key points.
Stockton played against Texas and Notre Dame, two of the best teams and defenses in the country. Plenty of quarterbacks, if not most, would show plenty of flaws. And yet Stockton was decent:
• Thrust into the game for the second half of the SEC championship, Stockton didn't pass much (71 yards on 12-of-16 passes, with one bad interception) but was effective running with 24 yards on six rushes, especially the 8-yard scramble in overtime to set up the winning touchdown.
• Then against Notre Dame in the CFP quarterfinals, Stockton did show off his arm, passing for 234 yards while completing 20 of 32 passes. He suffered from some drops, including on a deep ball, but also hit on another deep ball.
While he was a third-year sophomore in 2024, Stockton had little game experience before going in. He appeared in only three games before the SEC championship, with 12 passes against Tennessee Tech and four against UMass. That was it.
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Carson Beck, before inheriting the starting job for the 2023 season, had been able to get extended snaps thanks to Georgia's many blowouts, throwing 58 passes in 11 games over two seasons.
'I definitely wish he would have gotten that playing opportunity, it gives you typically more confidence going into the next year,' Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Stockton. 'But if you had to say, OK, he could play in mop-up duty in four games or he could play really critical moments in a CFP game (and) in a SEC championship game, they're his only opportunities, that is way more valuable for him in confidence of the team (in him) than (just playing) up 21 in the fourth quarter. So he did miss a lot of those opportunities that we've had in the past. But he also got what is real time, and I think real time will pay off this year.'
Officially, Smart hasn't named Stockton the starter, but bringing him to SEC media days may have said enough. And Smart went on Finebaum's show in May and called out the host for his Stockton comments, albeit in a lighthearted way: 'I'm excited, Gunner got the message.'
'Gunner got the message.' 😂 #collegefootball #georgia #football #funny
♬ original sound – SECNetwork
As for how Stockton played in those two games, Smart last week downplayed it a bit by saying offensive coordinator Mike Bobo 'took care of' Stockton with some short throws early on to get confidence. However, Smart also pointed out that Stockton wasn't helped by the dropped passes or the lack of a running game.
'The best friend of a quarterback is a run game. And he didn't have a lot of that in those two games,' Smart said. 'It's really hard to run the ball against really good defenses, and so it puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback to win other ways.'
To that end, Georgia added Illinois' leading rusher Josh McCray, a physical runner, to pair with dynamic sophomore Nate Frazier. Smart also said they made some offseason changes 'I don't disclose' to help the running game.
Georgia also gave Stockton help in the portal: Zac Branch, the speedster from Southern California, will start in the slot, while the tall and physical Noah Thomas will give the offense the type of outside receiver it didn't have most of last year. Colbie Young, another move-the-sticks receiver, is back from suspension after his domestic violence case was resolved.
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Stockton said he's been making his own offseason improvements. He worked on his footwork, especially what he said was over-striding. He also said he's been 'messing a little bit' with his release, which some Georgia fans on message boards had diagnosed as developing too slow.
Pocket presence was an issue in those two games. Stockton took a 16-yard sack against Texas, and two sacks against Notre Dame, including the strip-sack in the final minute of the first half that turned the game. Asked if those were partially his fault for holding onto the ball too long, Stockton acknowledged 'I had something to do with it.' He also said the issue wasn't not being used to the speed of the game.
'It was just me,' he said. 'My fault.'
Not many words.
'He's real quiet off the field, but on the field, that's when his swagger turns on,' cornerback Daylen Everette said. 'Like getting thrown into the fire in the (SEC) championship game, he wasn't really nervous. He really took advantage of his opportunity.'
And led Georgia to the comeback victory.
That started the flurry of personal and football feel-good stories about Stockton, about how he still drives an '80s truck, how his teammates love him. The feel-good story ended in New Orleans.
This year, Stockton gets a few (presumably) warmup games: Marshall and Austin Peay. Then he will make what will be his first SEC road start, at Tennessee, and the gantlet begins.
As does the judging. Finebaum, and the college football world, will be watching.