At one point, it was anyone’s guess how Gunner Stockton would perform as Georgia’s full-time starter in 2025. Sure, he had come in and performed well in two big games for the Bulldogs last year after Carson Beck went down, but he also had his down moments as well. And after a relatively vanilla start to Georgia’s season against lesser competition, the “game-manager” label started to creep in.
Fast forward to late November, and that kind of talk is long-gone.
Stockton has been everything Georgia’s coaching staff once said he could be and more. He led Georgia to shootout wins over Tennessee and Ole Miss, helped the Bulldogs seal it late over Auburn and Florida, and most recently threw four touchdowns and rushed for another in a dominant 35-10 win over No. 10 Texas.
The national media has been hesitant to utter the “H” word around Georgia’s “aw-shucks” quarterback, and it’s safe to assume he might not care too much himself about winning a certain bronze trophy that is awarded in New York every December.
But for Georgia fans, it’s become hard to ignore.
Gunner Stockton deserves a shot at the Heisman Trophy
Stockton already has several Heisman-esque moments, be it his fourth down touchdown pass against Tennessee with the Bulldogs’ backs against the wall, his Superman dive to the end zone to seal the win over Auburn and his kneel down at the one yard line to ice it over the Florida Gators that stand out the most.
Stockton has four games played against current AP top 25 teams, as many as Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed have combined.
Stockton’s QBR of 90.0 would put him at the seventh-best in the SEC since 2004, a list that includes Heisman winners Jayden Daniels in 2023, Joe Burrow in 2019 and Johnny Manziel in 2012. Stockton currently has the same QBR as Cam Newton in 2010. Seems like good company.
The Heisman race is still wide open and no one’s quite locked it up yet, but Stockton will have another chance to make plays on a national stage when Georgia plays Georgia Tech on Black Friday. And if the Bulldogs find their way in the SEC title game, there’s another opportunity for some Heisman case-building.
Individual awards are the last thing a Kirby Smart-led team cares about. But Stockton has been phenomenal this season and deserves all the praise he is receiving. And if that praise comes in the form of being mentioned in the same breath as Herschel Walker and Frank Sinkwich, then so be it.