Georgia football has a good ole fashioned quarterback competition that is beginning to heat up this offseason. After Carson Beck was injured during the SEC Championship game, Gunner Stockton took over for the last game and a half to finish the season. But just because he replaced Beck this past season does not mean he will automatically win the starting job for the 2025 season.
As of today, there is only one quarterback who has a realistic chance to beat out Stockton, and that is redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi. Puglisi did not see the field at all during his true freshman season in 2024, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an elite talent. Out of high school, he was the No. 10 quarterback in the country and just barely outside the top 100 overall players according to the 247Sports composite rankings. And while that is great and all, everyone knows that rankings don’t mean much once the player gets to college.
Thankfully a lot for reports this past year have surfaced that have praised how well Puglisi has been performing at practice. Unfortunately for Georgia fans, they have not been able to see that with their own eyes. That is until a recent video surfaced on social media on Wednesday showing Puglisi working out and throwing the ball.
Ryan Puglisi putting in that offseason work 📈 pic.twitter.com/SSsFSW5vuj
— 704 Dawg (@FSFRecruits) January 22, 2025
Can Puglisi beat Stockton for the starting job?
It is going to be an uphill battle for Puglisi to win the starting job over Stockton, but he will have every chance to prove that he should be the starter in the fall. The favorite this early in the offseason is Stockton considering he was the backup for Beck the entire 2024 season, but that doesn’t mean anything when looking ahead to who should start next fall.
Kirby Smart and his staff will definitely be watching both players very closely because at the end of the day they have to put out the player who gives Georgia the best chance to win football games. If that’s the experienced Stockton then great. But if that’s Puglisi even as a freshman then that’s great too.
Regardless of what ends up happening next fall, this QB competition is going to be very exciting to watch. And the best part of this battle is that both players are more than capable of leading Georgia to a lot of wins next season, so whoever earns the starting job will have a lot of expectations to live up to.