What to make of Georgia football quarterback room coming out of G-Day

ATHENS — There’s no bigger difference between a spring game and an SEC game than at the quarterback position.

Barring injury, only one quarterback will attempt passes when Oklahoma and South Carolina come to Athens this fall. That will be Gunner Stockton, as he returns for his second season as the starter in Athens.

“We’re not asking a ton from Gunner in a spring game, but just being a guy to get us going, being good on the sidelines, staying into the game,” tight end Lawson Luckie said. “He sets a good example.”

Stockton completed 7 of his 12 pass attempts on Saturday for 76 yards. He found Jaden Reddell for a 7-yard touchdown, as the red team beat the black team 27-17.

Seven was a big number in the quarterback room during Georgia’s spring scrimmage. In addition to the number of completions Stockton had, it was also the number of quarterbacks who played.

Stockton didn’t take a snap in the second half of Georgia’s spring game, clearing the way for the Bulldogs to get a longer look at the many quarterbacks on the roster.

Ryan Puglisi and Ryan Montgomery battled it out for the backup quarterback job on Saturday. Both had some nice moments, but neither lit up the Georgia secondary. Puglisi completed 8 of his 19 pass attempts for 86 yards. He connected on a deep pass to Talyn Taylor for 32 yards, but he had a bad miss to CJ Wiley as well.

Montgomery did get intercepted in the first half when he threw a bit too long and into the arms of defensive back Todd Robinson. But his numbers were better, thanks to back-to-back throws to Colton Heinrich and Landon Roldan. The former went for 48 yards and was the longest play of the day. The latter set up a short touchdown run for Dante Dowdell for the final touchdown of the day for the Red Team.

“It was a different kind of game,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said in defense of his quarterbacks. “You know, they don’t have the run game as their friend in that game, so it’s like we put more pressure on them. We’ve got more two-minute situations, we’ve got more passing situations to put pressure on them to make decisions, to play with their feet. You know, and the defense knows that, too. They crank up the rush, and it makes it a little tougher.”

Further down the depth chart, Hezekiah Millender had perhaps the strongest day of any non-Stockton quarterbacks. He had some real juice to his game as he ripped passes into tight windows. While working largely with the second and third team offense, Millender completed 9 of his 15 passes for 103 yards.

He added a touchdown run on an option keeper, showcasing his running ability.

“I think the scout teamwork he did last year is so valuable,” Smart said of Millender. “People think that like, well, if you go down there with the offense, you get better. I saw Stetson Bennett grow up down there. I saw some guys go down there and really grow up. You see glimpses of that ability when (Millender is) out there playing quarterback. And I’m like, man, I’m so glad that he had to stand in there and make throws with rush coming at him because he made a couple really good plays today.”

Smart noted that Stockton’s consistency is a clear separator in the Georgia quarterback room to this point. Any illusion of a quarterback controversy should be dispelled by what we saw on Saturday.

Stockton knows that he has to keep getting better. For as well as he played at times last season, he knows that in games against Georgia Tech and Alabama, he wasn’t all that impressive.

“My biggest thing, one of the biggest things I worked on was my footwork and just my pocket presence and not creating my own pressure and drifting into some stuff,” Stockton said. “So I thought I got a little better at that through the spring.”

Colter Ginn and Bryson Beaver both threw interceptions as well, bringing the total to three on the afternoon. Beaver did redeem himself by scoring the final touchdown of the afternoon, as he found Kaiden Prothro for a short score.

Beaver was Georgia’s most recent addition to the glut of quarterbacks, as he transferred in from Oregon after the Ducks added Dylan Raiola and Georgia missed out on the services of Jared Curtis.

All in all, it was a quiet day for the Georgia quarterback room. Stockton was steady in his showing, which was to be expected for someone playing in his fifth spring game.

As for those behind Stockton, observers could tell they were pressing at times. And how could they not, when reps will soon be scarce as Stockton takes on a prominent role in the Georgia offense?