Georgia football is gearing up for what should be one of the most exciting College Football Playoff runs in the history of the event. This year is the first year of the expanded 12-team format, and the Bulldogs enter as the overall No. 2 seed which earns them a first round bye.
The hope with this bye was that QB Carson Beck would be able to be healthy in time to play in Georgia's upcoming Sugar Bowl game on Jan. 1. But that does not appear to be the case.
So that means it is time to fully get behind backup Gunner Stockton, who had an excellent second half performance in Georgia's SEC Championship win over Texas.
But getting a backup QB ready for Georgia's biggest game of the season is no easy task, and it has caused a lot of UGA fans to become very nervous about their chances at winning the Sugar Bowl. But Kirby Smart shared that the team is not lacking any confidence at all when he was discussing Stockton and what is going to change with Georgia's offense with him under center.
“The team has a lot of confidence in Gunner. He’s very smart, very intelligent,” Smart shared via dawgnation.com. “So I don’t know that it’s a lot of change. It’s probably more picking the volume correctly in terms of not having everything that we have with Carson, but having things that fit Gunner.”
Georgia, Smart are confident in Stockton
The first thing Smart shared was that Georgia’s entire program has a lot of confidence in Stockton as he takes over for an injured Beck. And how could they not after he helped lead them to a dramatic victory over Texas last weekend?
But the more interesting thing Smart shared is what is going to change with Stockton taking over. Smart did say that not a lot is going to change, but that has more to do with how the team prepares and handles themselves in as big of a moment as the CFP and Sugar Bowl is. He did however hint at changes coming to the offense.
This likely will include a lot more plays in the run game, whether it be relying on the running back room behing Georgia's offensive line or dialing up designed run plays for Stockton himself. Regardless, the offense will look drastically different from the pass heavy offense we have been used to seeing this year with Beck.
And hopefully the offense will be ready to go by Jan. 1, because whoever Georgia plays will be capable of beating them, so UGA is going to have to be at their best if they expect to advance to the semifinals.