ATHENS — Georgia football has plenty of talent to compete for another championship, but one question lingered after the G-Day Game….

Is the quarterback play good enough?

Kirby Smart talks about “The Standard,” so it’s fair to wonder how he applies that to his current quarterback room.

Smart, whose opinion matters most in the QB discussion, was non-committal in his comments.

“Both did some good things and both did some poor things,” Smart said, noting that both Gunner Stockton and Ryan Puglisi — who combined to throw the ball 80 times — need more work.

“We have to rely on those guys to be able to make some plays, and I think both of those guys understand the offense.”

Smart understands the business, and that means when the transfer portal opens on Wednesday, Georgia will take a look around.

The Bulldogs’ have depth issues at running back, and that seems the most likely position for a roster addition.

But will a play-making — and perhaps difference-making— quarterback be available?

At the very least, it seems, Georgia needs to add another scholarship quarterback to the room to provide depth, if not competition.

Stockton’s G-Day Game statistics indicate the progress he has made as he enters his fourth season on campus.

Stockton, a gritty, determined leader who throws a good deep ball and gets through progressions quickly, was 17-of-34 passing for 309 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception.

But, like last year’s offense, this spring’s first-team unit took its time to warm up.

Stockton’s “Red Team” didn’t find its way into the end zone until there was 1:19 left in the second quarter, on its fifth drive of the game.

At that, it took a fourth-and-6 completion to sustain the drive. It was a play that featured receiver Zachariah Branch leaping high to win a jump ball with Joenel Aguero, the players wrestling for the ball as they hit the ground at the 1-yard line.

Two previous drives have been undone by an interception on an under-thrown pass in the end zone, and a turnover on downs on a dropped pass.

How many SEC wins will scoring 10 points in the first half lead to?

It appears the first-team offense has more and better weapons to work with at receiver and tight end than last season.

But for all the talk about how good receiver Colbie Young looks back in uniform, he caught only one of the four passes thrown his way for 17 yards — and that reception came when Puglisi took reps with the first-team offense.

Oscar Delp, the most experienced player in UGA’s talented tight ends room, caught just one of the three passes thrown in his direction for 16 yards — again, in Puglisi’s abbreviated stint running the first-team offense in the scrimmage.

Don’t get it wrong -- Puglisi, even with his strong arm and high ceiling -- does not yet appear consistent enough to operate this Pro Style offense in the heat of an SEC shootout.

Stockton is much more adept, but in this G-Day Game, he lacked consistency and missed on throws.

Cash Jones, perhaps the most clutch playmaker returning, had one catch for 25 yards but would have had another and likely a touchdown had Stockton not overthrown him while he was running open down the sideline.

It might seem picky to point out shortcomings in a scrimmage — after all, Georgia didn’t lose.

But imagine the outcry if these breakdowns cost the Bulldogs in an SEC game at Tennessee, Auburn or the Cocktail Party.

To be fair, Stockton adjusted and came out strong in the second half, connecting with Dillon Bell on a well-thrown deep pass.

There were, as Smart noted, encouraging signs. Perhaps even reasons to believe that with more fine-tuning, the offense might be good enough to win the SEC if Georgia returns to its dominant defensive ways.

Just like the historically good 2021 Georgia defense often implied, the other team can’t win if they don’t score, right?

Those who want to be guardedly optimistic about the upcoming season have enough reason to do so at this juncture of the offseason.

But those Georgia fans who want to feel confident about the offense and the program competing for another national title do not have enough evidence to do so comfortably at this point.

Smart didn’t make either quarterback available for interviews after the scrimmage, but he did make it clear he appreciates them.

“We’re very lucky to have two guys that care so much about Georgia,” Smart said. “And they’re not worried about the perception or whatever you’re gonna write coming out of the scrimmage of your view of them.

“They don’t care. They care about the team, and that’s what I care about.”

Indeed, and now it’s a matter of what Smart will do to make his offense look better than it did on Saturday in the G-Day Game, and that’s what football fans and analysts will be talking about.