Fox Sports analyst and color commentator Joel Klatt released his ranking of the top 10 quarterbacks in college football this week, and Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton was missing from the list.
Klatt’s list, in order from top to bottom, was:
- Dante Moore, Oregon
- Arch Manning, Texas
- Julian Sayin, Ohio State
- Trinidad Chambliss, Mississippi
- CJ Carr, Notre Dame
- John Mateer, Oklahoma
- Jayden Maiava, USC
- Darian Mensah, Miami
- Josh Hoover, Indiana
- Sam Leavitt, LSU
Stockton finished seventh in Heisman Trophy voting last season after throwing for 2,894 yards and 24 touchdowns to five interceptions, and rushing for 462 yards and 10 touchdowns. So for him to not make Klatt’s list of top 10 quarterbacks after being voted a top 10 player in the country by the Heisman voters just last year raises some questions.
Gunner Stockton has work to do to earn Joel Klatt's respect
Stockton led the Bulldogs to their second straight SEC title in 2025, but Georgia also got bounced in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal for the second year in a row.Â
It was a good statistical season from Stockton that deserved the recognition it got from the Heisman voters, but his game is worth a closer look than just a glance at the stat sheet.
The Bulldogs ran most of their passing offense through dynamic wideout Zachariah Branch. The USC transfer finished with a staggering 54 more catches than the player with the second-most (Dillon Bell), and broke a program record with 81 catches on the season.
Most of that production was pretty easy for Stockton to accumulate. A whopping 51.3 percent of Branch’s routes were on screen passes.Â
It is fair to wonder, then, if Georgia ran those many screens because it didn’t trust Stockton to throw down the field and wanted to find an easy way for him to get his best playmaker the ball.
This theory is illustrated by the fact Stockton only completed 32.1 percent of his throws that traveled 20 or more yards downfield, and 31.1 percent of his throws went behind the line of scrimmage. He struggled to access the middle of the field and the 10-19 yard intermediate area.
Though Stockton is, by all accounts, a fierce competitor and great leader, that fire got him in trouble. He frequently put his body on the line this season and took plenty of hits, and looked noticeably banged up and hobbled by the time December and January came around.
He didn’t play very well in Georgia’s season-ending loss to Mississippi, save for some big-time fourth-down conversions in the fourth quarter when Georgia was in desperation mode. And though Stockton is clearly a gamer with a real knack for saving his best football for the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs often found themselves playing from behind late in games. That caught up to them eventually.
And it’s not going to get any easier in 2026. Stockton is losing Branch, as well as five of Georgia’s other six leading receivers from 2025. He’ll have to acclimate to a new cast of characters at receiver, with nobody having the quickness or yards-after-catch ability quite like Branch. Many of the new targets like Isiah Canion and C.J. Wiley, are more classic outside receiver targets who win down the field.
It'll test Stockton like never before, and we will truly just have to wait and see how he looks.
Gunner Stockon's potential could land him as a top 10 QB by the end of the season
Klatt’s main argument for each of the 10 quarterbacks he has on his list is their upside as drop back passers, processors and out-of-structure creators. Stockton was much more of a game-manager in 2025, and didn’t show much of those aforementioned qualities aside from some clutch moments where Georgia needed it most.
That clutch gene is definitely worth something, and so is Stockton’s ability as a rushing threat. But Georgia will need more from him than just those two things if it wants to make it past the quarterfinal.
It’ll take a reinvention of Stockton’s game for him to be truly regarded as one of college football’s game-changing quarterbacks, and for the Bulldogs to make it to the national title game.
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