Georgia had two quarterbacks depart the program this offseason via the transfer portal. Carson Beck is now at Miami and Jaden Rashada departed for Sacramento State.

For the position, the transfer portal proved to be a one-way street. Despite being linked to a handful of quarterbacks, most notably Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Georgia did not end up taking a quarterback out of the portal.

Seeing as how Georgia will have a new starting quarterback, it’s at least notable that head coach Kirby Smart is rolling with what he has in the quarterback room entering the 2025 season.

Gunner Stockton has a notable edge in experience, even with all of 83 career pass attempts to his name. He’s still comfortably ahead of redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi.

"We’ve got a young kid coming up that has not had many real reps,” Smart told Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy last week. “He didn’t go through spring last year. This was his first real spring in Puglisi. He’s coming up, getting better.”

Georgia also has freshmen Ryan Montgomery and Hezekiah Milender on the depth chart, but both are behind walk-on Colter Ginn. Montgomery is still recovering from a knee injury he suffered during his senior season.

That Georgia did not find outside competition for Stockton, and to a lesser extent Puglisi, says a good bit about how it views Stockton. The Bulldogs have invested a lot of time into Stockton and would like to see how he looks as the team’s starting quarterback.

Georgia got a taste of that in the second half of the SEC Championship game and then against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.

McElroy came away impressed with what Stockton showed against Notre Dame. He threw for 234 yards and a touchdown while completing 20 of his 32 pass attempts.

“Gunner showed me a lot in that game,” McElroy said. “He made some plays in that game that will be lost and forgotten. I mean, that guy’s a baller. He’s got some baller quality.”

After the game, teammates raved how Stockton handled himself. They acknowledged as well that they needed to be better around Stockton.

And while Georgia didn’t use the transfer portal to add to its quarterback room, it did use it to help the quarterback position.

During the winter window, Georgia went out and added wide receivers Zachariah Branch and Noah Thomas. They both bring different elements to the Georgia offense, with Branch having speed and Thomas possessing great size.

The presence of those two is part of the reason for optimism for a new-look wide receiver core. While Georgia led the country in drops last season, the new talent should go a long way in giving Stockton help that Beck did not always receive.

The help though does not just end at the wide receiver position. During the spring portal window, Georgia went out and added Illinois running back Joshua McCray.

At 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, McCray brings a physical component to Georgia’s rushing attack. One it was lacking for much of last season due to injuries to Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson.

The former is gone while the latter is still with the team. The Bulldogs like what they have in Chauncey Bowens and Bo Walker, but McCray brings proven production to the Georgia running back room. He led Illinois in rushing last season while scoring 10 rushing touchdowns.

“Talented kid from a great high school program,” Smart told reporters at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Hoover, Alabama last Wednesday. “Size, in a world of a lot of third and ones and fourth and ones in College Football with analytics people going for it, you need short yardage backs. We think he gives us the potential to do that.

McCray should pair nicely with Nate Frazier to help give Georgia a running back room it can rely on. During the stretch run of last season, it’s worth remembering that Trevor Etienne was dealing with a rib injury that limited his availability.

Should the quarterback position get greater contributions from the wide receiver and running back rooms, Georgia won’t ask Stockton, or Puglisi, to do nearly as much in 2025.

Perhaps if Georgia had gone out and landed a flashy newcomer at the position, the hype or optimism surrounding Georgia would be greater. While Stockton is not a proven entity, there’s enough bloom off of his rose to cast some doubt as to how he and Georgia might look next season.

Smart knows though that the transfer portal won’t simply solve Georgia’s issues at the quarterback position. Rashada and JT Daniels both transferred out of the program after transferring in. Jamie Newman meanwhile never even started a game for Georgia after arriving from Wake Forest.

The transfer portal is not some instant fix for the quarterback position. Georgia’s own history with it proves that.

Adding a transfer quarterback could’ve done more to signal how Smart may have felt about his quarterback room. He often only leans on the transfer portal for need-based acquisitions.

Georgia needed more at the wide receiver and running back positions, among others.

Smart doesn’t think quarterback falls into that same bucket. And while he hasn’t yet named a starter, the lack of the transfer portal quarterback would indicate Georgia likes what it has in the quarterback room for the 2025 season.