‘Watch out for Gunner Stockton’: SEC championship QB likes what he sees.
ATHENS — Former Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm knows what championship football looks like, and he’s liking what he’s seeing from Gunner Stockton.
Fromm, who accurately pegged Stockton as a “tough sucker” just weeks into the season, has growing confidence in this Georgia football team.
“Watch out for Gunner Stockton,” Fromm said this week on the DawgNation Daily podcast. “He’s playing some really good football right now, and he can take this team wherever it wants to go.”
Kirby Smart and the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs will be counting on it as they travel to play at Mississippi State in a noon game Saturday in Starkville.
Stockton is matched up with another tough quarterback who is having a good season in the Maroon Bulldogs’ explosive attack, senior Blake Shapen.
Shapen ranks fourth in the SEC with 2,148 yards passing, compared with Stockton’s 1,776, and he averages 8.4 yards per attempt to Stockton’s 7.8.
Stockton, a redshirt junior, has been the more efficient quarterback, with his 12 touchdowns and two interceptions compared with Shapen’s 15 touchdowns and six interceptions.
More noticeable, Stockton has been sacked only 10 times — third lowest among SEC starters — while Shapen has been sacked 29 times, which is tied for second most in the league.
Mississippi State does, however, lead the SEC with 16 pass plays of 40 yards or more.
Smart has talked about the importance of not having to play from behind against such an explosive team, and Fromm said he believes Stockton will be ready to go from the onset Saturday.
Fromm noted how Stockton, in UGA’s 24-20 win against Florida on Saturday, led the Bulldogs to a touchdown the first time they touched the ball.
“I loved starting fast and scoring on the first drive of the game,” said Fromm, who was 36-7 in the games he played 2017-19 as Georgia’s quarterback, also leading UGA to an SEC championship game victory and national championship game appearance.
“(Then) when the fourth quarter comes around, this team finds a way to scratch out wins.”
Smart has said many times over that it’s not part of the plan to have to play from behind, as Georgia has in nine of its past 10 games against SEC opponents, dating to last season.
Fromm sees the team’s ability to win eight of those nine SEC games it trailed in — it lost to Alabama this season, 24-21 — as a strength.
“I think that is so important for this team,” he said, “when they are faced with a ton of adversity, and in all these situations, they find a way to win.
“I think that will be so important in the second half of the season when it gets colder and you start talking about playoff football. That becomes so vital for a team to have success.”
Fromm also believes Stockton’s growth — undeniable for anyone who watched him struggle in the G-Day game, as Smart noted in April — has been key to the season.
“There’s a ton of growth that we’ve seen and a lot of maturity,” Fromm said. “I think his body presence says a ton, he looks so much more comfortable out there.
“And him just seeming to have fun,” Fromm said. “That’s showing the makings of a guy who is figuring it out, when he’s comfortable enough in a high-pressure situation to have a little fun out there.”
About the Author
Mike is in his eighth season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 30 years of collegiate sports multimedia experience, 25 of them in the SEC including beat writer stops at Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee and now Georgia. Mike was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
