Georgia's players trust in QB Gunner Stockton unwavering
Georgia safety KJ Bolden delivered the statement heard around the internet when it comes to quarterback Gunner Stockton on Saturday. Bolden has known Stockton for a long time. They were 7-on-7 teammates in high school.
“As you all can see, he’s a dog,” Bolden said of the Bulldogs’ quarterback.
It’s something Georgia’s players have known about their quarterback for some time now. Stockton made a national statement on Saturday as he helped guide Georgia’s offense in a 44-41 win over Tennessee in Knoxville.
Stockton threw for 304 yards, two touchdowns, and ran for 38 yards and a touchdown. He also took some massive hits in the pocket to deliver catchable passes over and over again.
Stockton has completed 70 percent of his passes, thrown for 721 yards and four touchdowns in the first three games. He’s also run for 124 yards and three scores. He’s been productive, but also, Georgia’s players like their quarterback. That matters.
“You want to play hard for players that make sacrifices and that you like,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart told reporters on Tuesday. “I mean, ultimately, when you like someone, you love someone, you endear yourself to someone, you play harder for them. And the players love Gunner, they wanna play hard for him. He doesn’t complain, he doesn’t point fingers, he doesn’t lay blame. He takes hits on the chin and takes some pretty vicious ones, and he gets up and goes on to play the next play. And I think there’s a lot of respect in that humility that the other players on offense and really the whole team have for Gunner.”
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Gunner Stockton is a likable leader for Georgia
The players continue to echo that. Offensive lineman Micah Morris spent a lot of time together in their early days at Georgia, facing the Bulldogs’ defense in practice.
Morris could see the makings of what Stoctkon has become this year back then. Those days are why his trust in the Bulldogs’ quarterback is unwavering as Georgia looks toward the rest of the season.
“For Gunner and I, it goes back to whenever he was a freshman here,” Morris told reporters on Tuesday. “I wasn’t always a starter here. I was a rotating guy, so I was blocking for Gunner way before he even had his first start or his first real big snap at Georgia at QB, like a game or anything like that. So just seeing him grow up and mature, seeing his confidence, it’s really just been an awesome thing to see. My trust in him is 100 percent. There’s never a doubt with him, because I know the work that he puts in on the field, off the field, the preparation that he puts in for every practice. So, not a doubt in my mind.”
