Gunner Stockton ‘has full control’ of Georgia offense for first career start

ATHENS, Ga. — Much has been made about Gunner Stockton and getting him ready for his first career start. The Georgia redshirt sophomore quarterback took over at halftime of the SEC Championship Game, and aside from one play after his helmet got knocked off, he’s been the the Bulldogs’ guy ever since.

Offensive lineman Tate Ratledge described Stockton has having “full control” of the Georgia huddle as he prepares to make his first career start in the Sugar Bowl. According to him, and many others, Stockton has gone about things the right way well before he was thrust into the role, and it’s the reason why teammates on both sides of the ball have confidence in and respect for the new starting quarterback.

“The way he steps in, calls the plays, and just goes about his business. I mean, I walked in here the other night at 10 o’clock because I forgot something, Gunner’s sitting in there watching film,” Ratledge told to reporters on Saturday. “Just his buy-in right now is what’s huge, and just the respect he has from everybody … Gunner’s just a guy you want to block for. I mean, he’s just a great guy. Like I said, plays with emotion, brings everybody with him, and now he has the whole team behind him, ready to roll.”

Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo also loves what he’s seen from Stockton. The two have known each other for a while now with their connection dating back before either was in Athens. Bobo landed Stockton as a prized commitment in the Class of 2022 while coaching at South Carolina before watching him flip to UGA later in the process.

Of course Bobo would wind up at Georgia, now with a chance to coach his former Gamecock pledge. A stop as the offensive coordinator at Auburn came in between his time in Columbia and Athens. In over 25 years of coaching, Bobo’s built up plenty of propensity for coach speak, but he promises, in talking about Stockton, it’s far from it.

“He’s approached it just like he has all season,” Bobo said on Stockton’s take-over of the starting job. “I can’t say enough for the way he started the season and approached every game. Sometimes that’s just words that we say: ‘You’ve got be ready.’ But his day in and day out, how he approached getting ready for the game as if he was the starter, I think has prepared him for this moment.”

“If you asked me that last year, I don’t think he had that same mindset. We talked about it going into the season, you’ve got to prepare as you’re the starter every week. And he took that to heart, and he did an excellent job of that,” Bobo continued. “Now, moving into this game prep, things are centered around him and his strengths and what he does well. That was the difference in weeks before where it was centered around Carson and what he does well with our football team. Now it’s centered around Gunner and what he does well.”

Bobo says that with his quarterbacks, he asks them of their preferences. What route schemes, what specific plays, etc. Their answers, in part, dictate whether the Bulldogs carry it into the game.

That being said, there’s a chance things look a little different with Stockton at the helm. Having the extra three weeks afforded to Georgia because of the bye the Bulldogs earned has been huge in allowing those adjustments to be made.

“I think anytime you have extra time to prepare it’s beneficial. And obviously a lot of that extra time we didn’t know who our opponent was, so it was getting getting back to basics, not just for Gunner but for this whole football team. We put him in a lot of situational football that we would have done for anybody. It was a chance to get him more third-down opportunities, more red zone work, more two-minute work for the end of the game against our defense. I think that extra time was beneficial, that we got to kind of go back to camp mode and practice those situational football where he’s gotten a lot of it but not as much as your starter would get,” Bobo said. “For him to get those reps against our defense, a lot of situations that Coach Smart put us in that can only help us in the game … I think he’s handled it well, he’s preparing, he’s getting ready to play a very, very tough opponent, a very good defensive football team.” 

One thing that hasn’t changed, whether Stockton is the starter or the backup: the way Bobo is coaching him up.

“I kind of warned him early on in the first meeting that I’m going to be who I am. ‘Don’t get sensitive to the way that I coach, whether it’s hard,’ but at the same time, coaching any young man, you’re going to find out how they handle things differently,” Bobo said.

“You know, some guys might want to watch more films. Some guys might want to go walk through more, but I’ve got to be me, and my message to Gunner, and really to any quarterback that I’ve ever coached, is you have to be Gunner Stockton,” he continued. “You can’t try to be Coach Kirby Smart, Coach Mike Bobo. You can’t try to be Carson Beck. You can’t try to be Jake Fromm, Stetson Bennett. You have to be Gunner Stockton because I’m going to be Mike Bobo, and I want you to be Gunner Stockton, and if we’re who we are all the time around each other, I think that’s where the trust goes, and you can get further along in the relationship and get where you want to go on the football field if you handle it that way. And nobody’s trying to be somebody else.”

Georgia and Notre Dame kick off at 8:45 p.m. ET on New Year’s Day. The Bulldogs enter the Big Easy as 2-point favorites over the Fighting Irish per VegasInsider.