Nick Saban offers his biggest concern about Gunner Stockton: 'He gives up on plays a little bit'

In his analyst role on ESPN’s College GameDay, Nick Saban gets to watch a lot more football than he did during his 17 years as Alabama‘s head coach. Saban even has a weekly film room segment on the show where he breaks down a unique aspect of one of the teams in GameDay’s featured game of the week.

Saban may have given a sneak peek at this week’s College GameDay film room session Friday afternoon during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. There, Saban provided a critical evaluation of Georgia’s inconsistent offense ahead of Saturday’s Top 15 showdown between the sixth-ranked Bulldogs (2-0) and No. 15 Tennessee (2-0). ESPN’s College GameDay airs live from Knoxville beginning at 9 am ET Saturday.

Specifically, Saban called out Georgia redshirt junior quarterback Gunner Stockton for his lack of poise in the pocket when facing pressure against what’s been a banged-up Bulldogs offensive line through the first two weeks of the 2025 regular season. Stockton has combined for 503 yards of total offense and four total touchdowns through two games, including 86 rushing yards and two scores on the ground.

“I think the big thing with Georgia is they’ve shown the ability to run the football pretty effectively. (But) They haven’t made a lot of explosive plays, and I think it’s a combination of (things),” Saban said Friday on The Pat McAfee Show. “Gunner has played pretty well, except with the offensive line, he gets a little pressure (and) he’s a little antsy in the pocket, he gets out of the pocket quickly, he gives up on plays a little bit, and I think that’s affected his ability to make explosive plays down the field. And I think that’s something that’s going to be important for Georgia to get fixed.”

The Bulldogs enter Saturday’s game averaging 454.5 yards to rank ninth in the 16-team SEC, while the Volunteers continue to lead the league in offensive output, averaging 605 yards of total offense through the first two weeks of the season. Despite that discrepancy, Saban also knows Tennessee has yet to face a defense like Georgia’s, which ranks second in the SEC, limiting teams to 201.5 yards per game so far.

“Now I think Georgia’s defense, which people don’t talk about much because they lost so many guys, they’ve got some dawgs playing defense,” Saban continued. “They can run, they’re athletic, they get after it, they play hard, they’re well coached, so I like their defense.”

It’s been that stingy Bulldogs defense that has been key to Georgia’s eight-game win streak in its series with Tennessee, including limiting the Vols to an average of just 10.25 points per game in its last four games in Neyland Stadium — the last two coming against UT coach Josh Heupel’s usually high-powered offense.