Georgia football is off and running in their 2025 season after handling their business against Marshall on Saturday. There are a lot of reasons why Georgia was able to win this game so easily, but the play from quarterback Gunner Stockton was one of the biggest reasons why.
Stockton shined throughout the entire game on Saturday and showed that he is good enough to lead Georgia to a lot of success this season. Everyone UGA fan who watched this game walked away feeling happy and excited about what Stockton can bring to Georgia this season, but it was Kirby Smart who put all of those feelings together and chose the perfect word to describe Stockton's performance.
"Proud of Gunner. Great leader, great competitor," Smart shared via 247sports.com. "Just does it the right way. Got us out of some negative plays. Had too many times that we could have been sacked, that he escaped. He took care of the ball well, made good decisions, made good reads on his pulls. Continues to distribute the ball and did a nice job."
Kirby Smart is proud of Gunner Stockton
So many college football fans, experts and analysts doubted Stockton all offseason. They didn't believe he had what it takes to be a successful quarterback at a program like Georgia in the SEC, but Stockton put is head down, went to work, and proved all of his naysayers wrong on Saturday.
Stockton ended his night completing 14 of 24 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for an additional 73 yards and two more touchdowns as well.
This performance in Georgia's first game of their season is reason enough for Smart to be proud of his quarterback, but it was how Stockton handled himself all offseason with all of this noise surrounding him that makes Smart the most proud.
Stockton still has to prove himself against some better competition before he can be crowned as one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC, but so far he has done everything that he can and has made Smart, who doesn't hand out too many compliments, extremely proud of him.