Notre Dame football tries to solve lightly tested Georgia QB Gunner Stockton
SOUTH BEND — The last time Gunner Stockton started at quarterback, he was closing out an 11-2 season for the Rabun County Wildcats in the Georgia Class 2A high school quarterfinals.
Stockton, who will take the ball for Georgia in relief of the injured Carson Beck on New Year’s Night against Notre Dame football in the CFP quarterfinals, finished his prep career with state records in total passing touchdowns (177), passing yards (13,652) and rushing touchdowns (77).
All told, Stockton accounted for more than 18,000 scrimmage yards in his four-year career. As a senior, the native of tiny Tiger, Ga. (pop. 429) passed for 55 scores and was intercepted just once.
Texas picked off Stockton once in a 12-for-16 second-half showing that gave the second-seeded Bulldogs the SEC title and a first-round playoff bye.
“I don’t really look at so much what they struggle with,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said Friday. “I just look at what we have to defend really well. I don’t see any decrease in terms of what they’re going to ask him to do relative to the offense. He has the skill set to do everything that they’ve done all year.”
Georgia’s 21 sacks allowed are tied for the 51st-fewest in FBS. Notre Dame has allowed 17 sacks.
If Beck sometimes held the ball too long while waiting for a downfield receiver to spring free, Stockton has displayed a willingness to distribute passes more quickly and conservatively.
“When he came into the game, did they change their structure or did he execute the system that’s there?” Golden said. “That’s usually pretty telling that they believe he can execute the system as it exists. Certainly, there’s things that every quarterback when compared to another does differently or has strengths compared to another, so we’re looking at what he did in those 80 (career) plays, and then obviously what he’s done in his past.”
Accuracy appears to be a Stockton trait. He completed 71.3% of his passes as a Rabun County senior, and at Georgia he’s at 72.5% through 51 career attempts.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Stockton was also intercepted once in 2023 against Alabama-Birmingham. Besides his SEC title game heroics and a solid turn against portal-gutted Florida State last season, Stockton has padded his stats against Tennessee-Martin, Ball State, Alabama-Birmingham, Tennessee Tech and Massachusetts.
Forty-six of his 73 career rushing yards came against the mopey Seminoles in last year’s Orange Bowl. Against Texas, Stockton rushed eight times for 8 yards.
“We definitely talked a lot about that,” freshman cornerback Leonard Moore said of Stockton’s mobility. “It’s just knowing what they want to do with him in the offense, how the offense changes from Carson Beck to him. We feel like he’s more of a running threat than Carson Beck was, so our mindset definitely shifts a little bit.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.