Georgia football fans biggest fear became a reality the last time UGA took the field when Carson Beck suffered a season ending injury in the SEC Championship game. If Georgia fans would have been told this would happen before the game they likely would have thought Georgia stood no chance at winning. But we all know how the game ended up playing out.
Gunner Stockton took over for Beck and led Georgia to an epic victory against Texas to win the SEC.
Now that Beck has been ruled out for the season, the keys of the Georgia offense have officially been handed to Stockton. But how should Kirby Smart and his staff call their upcoming game in the College Football Playoff? Should they continue to be aggressive with Stockton in the run game or should they be conservative to try and prevent an injury for Stockton?
Smart shared his answer to that question during his press conference on Monday.
"You have to do everything you can. It's win or go home," Smart said via 247sports.com. "There is no measure of, 'Well, I've got to be conservative on this. I've got to be conservative on that.'"
No time to be conservative
Smart shared that Georgia can't afford to be conservative in their play calling in hopes that Stockton will stay healthy all game. Doing this will not put the Bulldogs in the best position to win, and winning is the only thing that matters now.
If this was still the regular season then being conservative would likely be the right call, but Georgia is in "win or go home" mode. That means that UGA needs to do everything in their power to win, which unfortunately means that Stockton may have a higher chance at suffering an injury because of that.
But Stockton showed how tough he is against Texas after taking multiple big hits and continuing to push forward. So while Stockton hasn't fully shown what kind of quarterback he is, he has shown that nobody is tougher than him, so he should have no issues with Smart and his staff being aggressive on offense instead of being conservative.