ATHENS — Georgia got a long look at quarterback Gunner Stockton on Saturday.
The redshirt sophomore had 37 pass attempts, completing 23 of them for 246 yards. He threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Sacovie White, though he was credited with an interception that was attributed to Troy Bowles.
“As he continues to get reps, we see what he’s capable of,” quarterback Carson Beck said. “He has a great arm, great athleticism, and as the mental side of the game grows, I mean, the sky’s the limit for him.”
Part of the reason Stockton was so involved in the spring game was because Georgia wanted to see what it had in its backup quarterback. Stockton has just 19 career pass attempts in his time at Georgia.
But the Bulldogs were also short-handed at the quarterback position on Saturday due to an injury to Ryan Puglisi. The freshman quarterback has been dealing with a knee injury all spring, though it was a surprise to see the young quarterback walking around Sanford Stadium with the assist of a cane on Saturday.
“The knee injury, it’s a stress, it’s a small stress fracture. It’s not a break or a significant injury,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a shut down injury and let it rest. We listened to what the doctor said and did that. But it’s not a long-term problem. But it did affect us in terms of reps. It probably gave Gunner more growth than ever because he took twos, threes. Gunner just took a ton of reps.”
Georgia has only three scholarship quarterbacks on its roster. It’s been made very clear, by Smart and even by Stockton during a press conference earlier this spring, that Georgia would like to have four scholarship quarterbacks.
The Bulldogs briefly had a fourth in Jayden Maiava, back in January. But he flipped his commitment to USC, sending Georgia back down to three scholarship quarterbacks.
Georgia will have the opportunity to add a quarterback in the upcoming spring transfer portal window. Players can officially enter their names into the portal starting on Tuesday and have until April 30 to do so.
Georgia won’t be able to pull players from other SEC programs, but the hope for the Bulldogs is that there is a quarterback who fits what it is looking for.
“I always want to have, our goal is to have four and a really good walk-on. That’s the goal,” Smart said. “We think we’ve got a preferred walk-on kid that’s a really good player that’s coming in, excited about him. We thought he was a really good player in our state. We’ll see what happens. I can’t predict the portal, I won’t even try to. I’m worried about our guys and the retention of our players.”
The walk-on Smart is referencing is Colter Ginn from Perry High School in Perry, Ga. He held offers from a handful of G5 schools such as Memphis, Coastal Carolina and FAU.
The Bulldogs also have Beck entrenched as the starter. He’s seen as one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Whoever Georgia potentially lands from the portal would have to be content to sit behind Beck for a year, with the hope of competing with Stockton and Puglisi for the starting job in 2025.
Beck completed 25 of his 46 pass attempts for 301 yards and 2 touchdowns in the spring game. He’s the clear present for Georgia at the quarterback position.
The future is still very much up in the air, especially with Georgia not having a quarterback commitment in the 2025 recruiting cycle. It does hold a commitment from Jared Curtis, the top quarterback prospect in the 2026 recruiting cycle.
Georgia has already seen one player depart for the portal, as running back Andrew Paul announced on Monday he would enter the transfer portal. We’ll see if Georgia is able to add a player to its roster via the transfer portal, with quarterback being the top priority.
