Georgia win over Florida shows how Bulldogs can get to ‘another level’
It’s easy for quarterbacks to say that as long as their team wins, they don’t care about stats. That might not always actually be true, but it’s all part of the job of being the face of the team.
Gunner Stockton himself said it after Georgia’s win over Florida on Saturday. The offense ran for 217 yards. The defense forced four sacks and four turnovers in a 27-8 win.
As for Stockton, he threw for a season-low 101 yards. He threw no passing touchdowns and scored no rushing touchdowns.
“I don’t care,” Stockton said. “As long as we win, I literally do not care. You know, I’ll try to do my job, do it to the best of my ability, but if it’s a win, I don’t, yeah, I don’t care.”
Saturday was the fourth time that Stockton ended a game as Georgia’s starting quarterback in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In those four appearances against Texas, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Florida, he’s thrown for a combined 398 yards. He has four touchdowns and two interceptions. He hasn’t looked anything like an NFL quarterback in an NFL stadium.
And yet, Georgia is 4-0 in those games — two of which Georgia netted the Bulldogs an SEC championship and the other two were rivalry wins.
It doesn’t always have to be pretty for Stockton, yet he still finds ways to help Georgia win.
“He does what he has to do to win,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “He gets the tough, dirty yards. He usually doesn’t put us in situations. Dawgs don’t beat Dawgs, right? He doesn’t turn the ball over.”
Smart and Stockton agreed that plays were left on the field against Florida. Some of that falls on Stockton, as he singled out a throw he should have had to Talyn Taylor.
But there was a deep pass to Craig Dandridge that likely should have been a touchdown had Dandridge not fallen down. London Humphreys had two drops. Had Jaden Reddell not been held by a Florida defender, the Georgia tight end likely would have had a touchdown. It was not a banner day from the Georgia pass catchers.
Perhaps that is what makes Georgia so scary for the rest of college football. Stockton has looked great at times this season, such as the team’s win over Alabama.
But this team hasn’t yet put it all together. Emphasis on yet.
“I do think there’s some things tonight that Gunner missed that he knows he can do better, and he can hit, and if he does, it takes us to another level,” Smart said. “Because we really haven’t played where the offense was clicking completely and the defense was, we haven’t done that yet. But that’s what complementary football is. You’re gonna have an off night, you’re gonna have a mistake, you’re gonna have a turnover. Well, can each other, can the two work together to play really good football? And I don’t know when that’s gonna happen for us.”
Georgia is entering the toughest part of its schedule. There’s a real possibility that Georgia’s 27-8 win over Florida was the first of four consecutive games against ranked opponents.
Next week, Georgia faces an Ole Miss team that ended Georgia’s season last year. In the 39-34 loss, neither Stockton nor the Georgia defense played well.
It’s been something they’ve had to live with for nearly 10 months.
“Definitely wasn’t the best feeling in that locker room,” Stockton said.
If there is a positive to take from Stockton’s performance against Florida, it’s that he did a much better job of taking care of the football than in his previous outing. He had three costly turnovers against Auburn. He had none on Saturday. Florida’s two quarterbacks combined for four.
Stockton did find a way to be a net positive when running the ball. He carried the ball a season-high 12 times, picking up 45 yards in the win.
“He’s never really a roller-coaster ride, never too high, never too low,” offensive lineman Earnest Greene said of Stockton. “So it was no really ever questions or worries about what he was gonna do or anything. I always have full confidence and faith, I love blocking for him.”
All Stockton had to do Saturday was not take anything off the table against Florida. It’s a luxury not every quarterback gets to enjoy, but that’s part of the gig that comes with playing quarterback at Georgia.
The quarterback is never going to put up video game numbers like Trinidad Chambliss has to for Ole Miss. Smart doesn’t build his program to hinge on just one player.
It’s a team game. Georgia has a great team.
Stockton is a major part of that equation. Even if he wasn’t additive Saturday.
“Any win you celebrate. They’re hard to come by,” Stockton said. “And definitely gotta cherish, you know, the hard work you put in for a whole year and everything. But definitely enjoy it for a day and then move on.”