CBS Sports identifies which Georgia player will ‘make or break’ its College Football Playoff hopes
Even for a Georgia team that will enter the season as one of the top 10 teams, it still has a handful of questions.
Can the offensive line gel in a way it failed to a season ago? How does Georgia’s young defensive front hold up? Will the transfer additions at wide receiver help an offense that led the country in drops last season?
All important questions that will be answered over the course of a rugged 2025 schedule that features games against Alabama, Texas, Florida and Ole Miss.
Yet the biggest question as it pertains to the national media hinges on what Georgia is able to get out of its quarterback position.
Of all the playoff teams set to feature first-time starting quarterbacks, Georgia’s situation has arguably the murkiest upside,” Carter Bahns of CBS Sports wrote. “Gunner Stockton was a top-10 recruit at his position but is a longtime backup who only modestly impressed in his relief of the injured Carson Beck last postseason. The Bulldogs notoriously got the most out of less heralded prospects at this position throughout their reign atop the sport, so perhaps Stockton is the next in line in that regard.
“If he is, then pencil Georgia back into the bracket. If he is not, then the Bulldogs are likely a bubble team.”
Most of Stockton’s first-team reps to this point came against Texas and Notre Dame, two teams that made the College Football Playoff semifinals a season ago.
In those two contests, Stockton completed 32 of his 48 pass attempts for 350 yards. His lone touchdown pass went to running back Cash Jones, though he did have an interception and fumble in those two performances.
Stockton has not formally been named the team’s starting quarterback to this point, as he battles Ryan Puglisi for the job. But Stockton has a significant edge in experience and took the majority of first-team reps in Georgia’s spring game.
Bahns isn’t the first media member to raise questions about what Stockton might bring to the table for Georgia. Paul Finebaum did so at SEC spring meetings.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made sure to note that Stockton has heard some of the criticism about his abilities.
“I’m just glad you did,” Smart said to Finebaum. “Yeah, I’m excited. Gunner got the message, man. He got the message. You did your job.”
Georgia was very aggressive this offseason in surrounding Stockton with pieces on the offensive side of the ball. Georgia added wide receivers Noah Thomas and Zachariah Branch in the winter transfer portal window and then scooped up Illinois running back Joshua McCray in the spring window.
Georgia also returns leading rusher Nate Frazier from last season. Tight ends Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie should also be important weapons on the offensive side of the ball.
Stockton is an important piece of the Georgia puzzle in 2025. But rarely has Georgia been very reliant on the quarterback position. It was in 2024 with Beck and that did not end how anyone envisioned it.
Which is why Georgia isn’t likely to put too much on the plate of Stockton, much less its College Football Playoff chances.
