ATLANTA – Gunner Stockton had never thrown more than 12 passes in a college football game headed into Saturday night.
There was little reason to expect that to change, either, with Stockton’s last action coming in a 59-21 blowout against Massachusetts where he completed three of four passes when the game had already long been decided.
But there was Stockton, forced into duty after Carson Beck got knocked out of the game on the last play of the first half, dropping back to pass against the Texas Longhorns for the 13th time of an SEC Championship game and he … threw an interception.
The late fourth-quarter interception while at Texas’ 31-yard line opened the door for the Longhorns to hit a game-tying field goal with 18 seconds remaining to send the SEC Championship to overtime for the first time in its 33-year history.
It was a devastating turn of events for a Georgia team that came rallied in the second half behind Stockton and a rowdy, mostly Bulldogs crowd inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. His movie-esque night just might not have been meant to end in victory.
Stockton didn’t fold after the interception, though.
Instead, he literally put his head down and tried to get every yard he could to will his team to an overtime win. A gutsy 8-yard run that ended with Stockton taking a massive hit and his helmet popping off set the Bulldogs’ up at the 4-yard line.
One play later, running back Trevor Etienne danced into the end zone and the Bulldogs were again SEC champions. Stockton, the little-known backup, helped deliver the heroics on a day that felt it was going against Georgia’s way for much of it.
“I mean the kid played just tough as nails,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “He hasn’t gotten to play much this year … but can’t say enough about his toughness, character, whatever you want to say. The guy is a phenomenal leader. He made some good plays. I think everybody else rose up around him.”
Smart had been on the receiving end of two second-half quarterback changes against Alabama inside this building that led to heartbreaking Georgia losses. First it was Alabama turning to Tua Tagovailoa, who famously completed a game-winning 2nd-and-26 touchdown pass to beat the Bulldogs in overtime in the 2017 national championship. Less than a year later, Alabama did it again — this time turning to Jalen Hurts in place of a banged-up Tagovailoa. Hurts rallied the Crimson Tide to another SEC Championship win over Smart.
The Georgia coach, who entered the night 2-4 in SEC championships, finally delivered that kind of heartbreak to an opponent. Poor Steve Sarkisian and the rest of the Texas faithful will rue all the blown opportunities in this one that led to the unlikely Georgia victory.
Stockton, a former four-star recruit from Rabun County High School in Georgia, hadn’t gotten much attention this season. He had thrown only 16 passes the entire season before Saturday and, weirdly enough, threw exactly 16 in the win over the Longhorns. Once committed to South Carolina, Stockton quietly hung in the shadows behind Beck, who started the last 27 games for the Bulldogs. The Beck QB experience has been a rollercoaster this season, especially in the middle part of the schedule when the senior seemed to go off the rails, but there was never a forceful fervor to turn to Stockton the way there would be in Austin with Arch Manning waiting in the wings.
Georgia might need more from Stockton moving forward if Beck is out for any extended time after taking a big hit. Smart said after the game Beck was having problems gripping the football and it was painful to try to throw the football because of an “upper extremity injury.” The Georgia coach hopes to know more after an MRI. The hit looked bad as did the way Beck seemed to wince walking to the locker room, though he was able to come in on the last play of the game when Stockton had to miss a play because his helmet came off.
The Bulldogs will await MRI results to learn the fate of Beck, coach Kirby Smart said postgame.
With the win over Texas, Georgia should get a first-round bye. That would give it until late December to get Beck healthy before making a decision.
If it has to be Stockton, though, the Georgia team showed it can rally around his energy and abilities.
“The players believe in Gunner,” Smart said. “They love Gunner. The juice that he brought and the passion and energy.
“It gave us an added boost of energy. They were fired up. They were trying to keep him composed.”
Georgia right guard Tate Ratledge shared a similar sentiment.
“Him coming in the game, I think it made everybody realize this is a new juice we got to come out in the second half with,” Ratledge said. “I think everybody did a great job with that.”
Stockton’s relief performance embodied so much of what this 2024 version of Georgia football is. It wasn’t perfect, even shaky at times, but it was resilient and delivered when the Bulldogs’ back were against the wall. The narrative was already forming about what the College Football Playoff selection committee could — and should — do with a three-loss Georgia team that could be without Beck. The precedent, for some at least, was already there with how the committee handled an undefeated Florida State team last season after star quarterback Jordan Travis got injured.
The committee slide Florida State out of the top four despite a 13-0 regular season and ACC Championship Game win over Louisville, citing Travis’ absence. The Seminoles played two QBs once Travis went down, Tate Rodemaker and then Brock Glenn. Neither looked as good in their appearances as Stockton did vs. Texas (Georgia’s only touchdown drives came with him at the helm). Had he looked like a deer in the headlights and had Georgia suffered loss No. 3 in Atlanta, you can only imagine the narrative that would have enveloped the next hours until the noon ET selection show.
We’ll never have to live through that surely contentious debate because Stockton, running back Etienne (94 yards and two touchdowns) and the rest of this Georgia team furiously rallied in the second half to win the SEC.
This Georgia team has flaws, as highlighted in losses to Alabama and Ole Miss, but it isn’t going away. Not when it has bench players like Gunner Stockton ready to step into as pressure-packed a situation as he’ll ever experience and still emerge victorious.