Wasson: Gunner Stockton goes from understudy to hero in leading Georgia to SEC title

The gasp you heard echoed across not only the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but across the entire Peach State.

The star quarterback was down, writhing on the plastic grass after a first half-ending hit as he tried to throw downfield – only to have his million-dollar elbow twisted awkwardly by a swarming defender on a strip sack.

Carson Beck instantly curled up in a ball on top of the Southeastern Conference logo, clutching that generational annuity of a limb as play continued around him. Georgia’s transcendent quarterback, destined for a first-round NFL future after yet another run toward a national championship, was in pain.

Beck wasn’t coming back into the game. Not Saturday, it seemed. And who knows, at this moment, if the senior even has a single collegiate throw left in him.

Trailing No. 2 Texas by a field goal at the time in the SEC Championship Game, and an already swarming Longhorns defense neutralizing the biggest threat the 5th-ranked Bulldogs had, the situation was dire.

Enter Gunner Stockton.

Forgive us if we had to scramble to Stockton’s entry in Georgia’s online media guide, as Beck has been The Man for Georgia all season long. A 6-1, 215-pound sophomore from Tiger, Ga., Stockton was immediately thrust into the biggest pressure cooker of the 2024 college football season.

Thankfully, at least Stockton had most of halftime to upchuck away any jitters and gather himself before Texas kicked off to Georgia to begin the second half.

What happened next, however, was not just wholly unexpected but a straight-up fairy tale. Instead of the Bulldogs folding behind their inexperienced backup quarterback, Georgia suddenly found offensive hope – and rode it all the way to a 22-19 overtime victory and the SEC title that also earned them a first-round bye in the upcoming College Football Playoff.

On that first possession, Stockton looked nothing like a backup who had attempted just 35 passes in pure mop-up duty behind Beck the past 2 seasons. Instead, he looked like a seasoned veteran – completing 4-of-6 passes for 36 yards on that half-opening possession and scrambling for 12 yards to spark the Dawgs to a go-ahead touchdown. His 14-yard sideline dart to toe-tapping Lawson Luckie during that drive might have been the biggest, most unexpected play of the game.

Stockton went from “who is that?” to “what a spark!” in a flash. Seemingly without a hope or a prayer, and with pundits wondering what the Committee might do with Georgia potentially becoming a 3-loss team without its starting quarterback, the Bulldogs had life.

Somewhere in Philadelphia, you just know Jalen Hurts likely cracked a knowing smile.

In the same building 6 years earlier, albeit in slightly different circumstances, Hurts was tapped to resurrect his Alabama teammates against Georgia in the 2018 SEC title game. Unlike Stockton, the Tide quarterback earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors before infamously losing his job to freshman Tua Tagovailoa at halftime of the BCS National Championship (also against Georgia …) a year prior.

Instead of pouting and festering into a locker-room cancer, Hurts was the ideal teammate despite riding the bench behind Tagovailoa – preparing every week in case his former understudy/Alabama’s new sweet Hawaiian prince were to somehow falter or fail. That time came early in the 4th quarter that year, and Hurts stepped right up to deliver consecutive touchdown drives to drive a stake in Georgia’s heart once again.

Stockton is no Jalen Hurts, at not on Saturday by a fair stretch. But the comparison became fair simply because of the outcome. With offensive coordinator Mike Bobo pulling the strings in the booth upstairs to favor his backup’s capabilities, Stockton was continually put in favorable positions to limit any liability for nearly 30 straight second-half minutes.

That formula played itself out a huge 4th-quarter drive. Feeding running back Trevor Etienne and mixing in just enough short passes to keep the Texas defense off balance – not to mention Georgia dialing up a sick 4th-down fake punt and consecutive would-be fumbles bouncing right back into Georgia hands – Stockton matriculated the Dawgs straight into the teeth of the Longhorns’ defense for a field goal and a 16-13 lead.

The Dawgs promptly picked off Ewers and were in position to close it out when Texas capitalized on Stockton’s lone mistake. The Longhorns picked off his ill-conceived throw to nobody and converted the turnover into a game-tying field goal to force overtime.

That play was big, but the biggest moment came at the end, as it so often does. Texas got snuffed by Georgia’s defense and had to settle for another field goal on their OT possession.

Did Smart and the Dawgs play it safe with a handoff-and-hope strategy? Nope. Instead, Stockton calmly converted 3 straight passes for a first down, then scrambled straight up the middle for an 8-yard gain to the Texas 4 before having his helmet literally knocked off his head on a vicious-but-clean hit from Texas’ Andrew Mukuba.

That helmet loss sent Stockton to the bench. Beck, his right arm dangling, jogged into the huddle for the dramatic finish: a handoff to Etienne for a game-winning 4-yard touchdown carry.

Clutch, anyone?

“I didn’t say one word to the kid,” Smart said of Stockton amid the celebration, choking up while talking about how Bobo and Georgia assistants prepared his backup quarterback. “He believes. This kid is a winner. He is special.”

What becomes of Beck moving forward, you ask? Dollars to donuts the Bulldogs won’t release a single iota of injury report until after Sunday’s College Football Playoff selection show – if for no other reason than FSU fell out of favor in a hurry just last season once Jordan Travis was lost for the season. Georgia has secured its Playoff spot and opening-round bye, but seeding still matters.

With Georgia knocking off the No. 2 team in America, the Bulldogs proved they are worthy of a top 2 or 3 seed.

Whether Beck’s recovery window will fall within Georgia’s Playoff future or not is certainly a central question after Sunday. But Saturday night, inside the same stadium that has been a postseason house of horrors more often than not for Georgia, Stockton delivered when Smart’s program needed it the very most.

From understudy to winner, the backup quarterback was a star once again under the bright lights atop of the premier conference in America.

Welcome to the big time, Gunner Stockton.

David Wasson

An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.