Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart is known for being a master motivator. Smart always seems to find a unique way to keep his players focused no matter how good or bad things are going during any given season.
Smart once again appears to be flexing his muscles when it comes to creating motivation, this time with quarterback Gunner Stockton.
Stockton appears to have won the starting quarterback job this fall even though the college football world is doubting his ability entering the season. But according to former Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm, Smart may have something to do with this doubt surrounding Stockton.
"There is a guy out there, a very prominent guy, who is really good at kind of arbitrarily floating these stories out there that catch wind," Jake Fromm shared via Dawg Nation. "They usually end up being very good for a specific team that plays in the red and black. So I wonder if he had anything to do with this, and I'm talking about coach Kirby Smart here of kind of playing this narrative into his hands."
"This is kind of right where I want the team, right where I want Gunner (Stockton)," Fromm continued. "I want Gunner in this hungry mindset but I don't want to put too much on his shoulders, I don't want to put too much pressure or stress and just feel like the weight of the world is on his shoulders."
Flying under the radar? Is it possible that's exactly how Kirby drew it up?
— DawgNation (@DawgNation) July 8, 2025
Jake Fromm breaks down why Gunner Stockton’s “underdog” label might be part of the plan and why that mindset could be dangerous for the rest of the SEC. #dawgnationdaily pic.twitter.com/YXt2HN6HWe
Kirby Smart might be creating extra motivation for Gunner Stockton
Smart has shared many positive things about Stockton this offseason and has shown a lot of confidence in him multiple times. This includes bringing Stockton along with him to SEC Media Days next week. But Fromm brings up an interesting point about how this somewhat negative narrative surrounding Stockton might be coming from Smart.
It’s important to note that Smart didn’t create this narrative, but he very well could be stoking the fire to make it a bigger deal than it is. Because Stockton, and the entire team for that matter, will work that much harder as more and more people continue to doubt Stockton.
Another example of Smart emphasizing one of these narratives was during Georgia’s second National Championship season in 2022. After Georgia won the National Championship game, a UGA player was shown calling out college football fans who supposedly thought UGA would only win six games that season. Everyone knows there is zero chance anyone thought that team would only win six games, but Smart got his players to believe it which is the only thing that matters.
It will be interesting to see how Stockton does this fall, but this tactic Smart might be using could help Stockton excel sooner rather than later.