Everyone knows the biggest question mark for Georgia football heading into the 2025 season is at quarterback. Gunner Stockton will likely be the starter when the season begins, and this will be his first time as the full time starter in his career.
Stockton will benefit from the limited playing time he received at the end of last season, but his performance against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff was not something to write home about. He by no means had a bad game as he completed 20 of 32 passes for 234 yards and one touchdown, but he did not play close to good enough to beat a super talented team like Notre Dame.
Many college football experts recognize that Stockton did struggle against the Irish, but they aren't holding that against him since it was his first career start. Most analysts are more than happy to give Stockton more time before they write him off as a bad QB, which makes sense considering his lack of playing time throughout his career so far.
ESPN's Paul Finebaum however did not hold back as he recently shared his concerns with Stockton moving forward.
“I know the team coalesced around him (Stockton) after the SEC Championship game, but I was underwhelmed by what I saw in the Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame,” Finebaum shared via dawgnation.com.
Kirby Smart comes to Gunner Stockton's defense
So how did Kirby Smart respond to Finebaum's comments? Smart got a chance to respond on Tuesday during an interview with Finebaum, and his response was priceless.
Smart did exactly what every Georgia fan would hope by defending his quarterback and saying how he isn't worried about Stockton at all. In fact, he praised Finebaum for the comments he made.
“I’m excited. Gunner got the message, he got the message,” Smart said to Finebaum. “You did your job.”
Here is a portion of the clip where Smart calls out Finebaum during their interview.
Gunner Stockton will benefit from Paul Finebaum's comments
Let's first state the obvious, Stockton leading Georgia to a National Championship last season was likely never going to happen. That isn't because Stockton is a bad player, it's just nearly impossible for any quarterback to be extremely successful when their first start of their career is coming in as big of a moment as the College Football Playoff is.
So even though Stockton did struggle during Georgia's playoff loss to Notre Dame as Finebaum stated, it isn't fair to hold that against him. Every other quarterback had all season to ramp up to this moment at the end of the season, Stockton didn't. So having the entire 2025 season under center will undoubtedly help him be more prepared this time around if Georgia makes it to the CFP again.
These specific comments from Finebaum however will also help Stockton be that much more prepared for the season ahead. Smart shared that Stockton got Finebaum's message, which means he will be using this as motivation all offseason.
Everyone knows how firey of a player Stockton is, so it's likely that these negative comments are exactly what he needs to be the best version of himself.
So even though Stockton has a lot to prove on the field still, these comments from Finebaum are not fair at this point in his career and will be fun to look back on later this season after Stockton proves himself on the field.