Kirby Smart shares on preparing Gunner Stockton for starting job

Sugar Bowl preparation has been ongoing for Georgia for a few weeks now. The Bulldogs didn’t know their opponent until Friday, but that’s okay for a team that’s working on getting a backup quarterback ready to be the starter. With Carson Beck out for the matchup on New Year’s Day and beyond, Georgia is turning to Gunner Stockton to lead the Bulldog charge in the College Football Playoffs as they chase a third national championship in the last four seasons.

Asked how the extra time has helped Stockton, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart pointed to the confidence he’s gaining simply getting more reps. Smart has always prided himself on the second and third team guys getting reps to build depth, and Stockton has been a beneficiary of those before now, however, he’s working with the first team and against the first team much more now.

“Well I would say just experience, right? Just practice. He got lots of reps prior to these practices, but he’s getting much more now,” Smart shared on Monday. “I do think knowing that, you know, when you get ready for a opponent like Notre Dame, you need time. We haven’t known who we were going to play for you know, I guess now what, 24-48 hours we’ve known, 72 hours. There’s certainly a lot of time in prep you can do to prepare for that. We prepared for some of that prior to that because we knew it would be within two opponents. But I think the biggest thing is just the competition at practice, you know, the situations we put him in. All those things allow him to get better as a quarterback.”

While it’s the first Smart has spoken with beat reporters since Selection Sunday, it’s not the first time he’s been asked to address the growth of Stockton and the process of getting him ready. Even after the Playoff was announced there was concern over the status of Beck and a need to prepare Stockton for if the situation called for him to make his first career start.

“He’s been a great competitor. He’s had some really great practices,” Smart told ESPN’s College GameDay Friday night. “It’s been good to see him get reps and grow as a player. It’s been really enjoyable to watch him grow and go against that defense of ours. It’s been awesome for him.”

“I certainly think there’s no good script, right, for losing a quarterback or having to go to your backup. There’s not a great script for it. It certainly wasn’t a great script last night to have to do it against the number one team in the country on defense, and to have to do that at halftime was tough.  But this situation does give you time if that’s what has to happen,” he added on Selection Sunday. “I mean, there is time there. But, I mean, experience is so valuable, and you can’t really get experience in this amount of time. I wish he’d gotten more game experience up to this point in time. There’s not a lot we can do about that right now, so we’re just waiting to find out more information.”

Stockton, who has been with the Bulldogs the entirety of his career after setting numerous records in the Georgia high school ranks, had played in just seven career contests prior to coming into the conference title game against Texas. It was the first time he stepped foot on the field without a lead or larger than 21 points – actually doing so with the Dawgs down 6-3 at the half. He guided a scoring drive to start the third quarter, one that ended with UGA’s first touchdown of the game, and came through with heroics that helped hoist a trophy when all was said and done.

As far as how Georgia’s offense changes with Stockton at the helm, Smart has been coy, so as to not give away much to the opponent. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound native of Tiger, Ga. has been known for his mobility throughout his time both at Georgia and in the high school ranks at Rabun County. He’s totaled 73 yards rushing on 22 attempts, but his sack-adjusted numbers are better. He recorded 46 yards on the ground against Florida State last year in the Orange Bowl with a long of 14 and had multiple plays versus Texas he extended with his legs.

“I think we are who we are in regards to that,” Smart said on Monday about the offense and how much more Stockton’s willingness to run changes things. “I mean, we’ve played an entire season offensively. You know, Gunner’s a good athlete. I think Carson’s a good athlete. So, it’s one of those deals that I don’t know how much that changes things.” 

“I think his strengths are somewhat different than Carson’s, obviously, but we’ve known that. There’s not a game we don’t go into that we don’t have a plan for Gunner if he were to have to play,” he added on separate occasion. “I mean, when he’s your backup quarterback, he’s got to be ready to play, but he functions and operates really well within our current offense. We don’t think we have to change much in terms of that. He does give us the capability of doing some different things with his athleticism, and I thought Mike and those guys did a good job using that. The team has a lot of confidence in Gunner. He’s very smart, very intelligent. So I don’t know that it’s a lot of change. It’s probably more picking the volume correctly in terms of not having everything that we have with Carson, but having things that fit Gunner.”

Georgia takes on Notre Dame in the Allstate Sugar Bowl New Year’s Day with a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals on the line. Kickoff time from New Orleans is set for 8:45 p.m. ET on ESPN/ABC.