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Gunner Stockton becomes more pivotal figure in future of Georgia football quarterback room
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Gunner Stockton becomes more pivotal figure in future of Georgia football quarterback room
Georgia recently missed out on the services of Arch Manning, who passed on the Bulldogs in favor of the Texas Longhorns. Given his last name and 5-star ranking, his recruitment was as star-studded as they come.
Comments
Good and timely article. I'm getting increasingly enthused that, if we can hang onto these three, we can avoid all the historical QB drama for UGA and build a program that works around high upside young men who are (at least in today's CFB world) relatively selfless.
A lot of team success is around culture, and having a set of QBs who are team-first is a great place to be. Follow that up with a really strong 2024 prospect (and/or a great transfer portal grab if there's an injury situation), and you have a good multi-year situation, IMHO
Enough of the nonsense.
1. Carson Beck is the #2 QB. (More on this later.)
2.Vandagriff was a consensus higher rated recruit than Stockton. Vandagriff was a 5 star by Rivals and Scout where Stockton was a 4 star by both. Vandagriff was only rated a 4 star by ESPN, and even there he had a higher score than Stockton.
3. Beck is the best NFL prospect in UGA's QB room. He is the tallest (6'4 1/2" versus Vandagriff's 6'3"), has the strongest arm and while not a dual threat like Stockton still moves around well enough for Dan Mullen to try to recruit to his spread offense. He is the clear #2 QB, meaning that he will get playing time backing up SB IV this year and will be the starting QB in 2023. Vandagriff and Stockton will compete to see what happens after that.
4. If Smart wants to recruit national talent at QB instead of regional ones like Beck, Vandagriff and Stockton he needs to handle Beck the opposite of how he handled Justin Fields. Smart needs get Beck on the field as much as possible next season and let him get as many opportunities to throw difficult intermediate and vertical passes as possible. This will demonstrate to guys who want to be 1st round NFL draft picks at QB that Smart is willing to take the risks on offense necessary for them to be so. Until Smart does this you can forget about any national QB prospect coming to UGA. The best that UGA will get is regional prospects hoping to parlay the visibility of playing for a contender into a 3rd or 4th round draft pick because that is the best deal that they can get as the Ohio State, Alabama, LSU etc. type programs don't want them and UGA is a better deal than going to the next tier: programs like Ole Miss and Michigan State.
Beck definitely proved himself to be a solid #2 and ready to take over if Bennett struggles. Vandagriff looked pretty solid at G-Day, but hopefully he will not transfer and he should secure the starting role
I'm excited about what we have in the QB room. These guys have the talent and 3 of the 4 have put significant time in the system. I think we will see some real fruit in the future if we hang with these guys and let them continue to develop. Monken will have them ready when it is time! GO DAWGS!
One could certainly make the case that heading into fall practices that Beck is ahead of Brock. Beck certainly looked much better than Brock IMO in the Spring game.
That said, unless someone has a crystal ball, who knows what will transpire going into the season. Certainly at this stage saying without reservation who will be starting in 2023 is nothing more than conjecture or fandom. Of course one would have have a 50/50 chance of getting it right, or maybe even a 33 1/3 percent chance., if you throw Gunner in the mix.
I'll go on record as saying I believe Gunner is the more talented of the 3. BUt he's also the most inexperienced and he doesn't have just one guy in front of him, he has two. That said, his best opportunity to leapfrog them will be next year. Say during the G-DAy game he lights it up and looks the best of the 3, does he not get to be the favorite heading into August practices? And per chance, say for example, during this 2022 season neither Brock nor BEck establish themselves as the best backup? Say both look OK but nothing to get excited about? Does that put pressure on BEck or Brock to transfer after the Spring game if Gunner looks like he's ready? Just asking.
Once Brock or Beck move into the starting position (assuming one of them does) in 2023, it will be harder to unseat them,of course, provided they play well. One thing for sure is CKS doesn't like QB controversies. My guess is (and it's certainly just a guess) is that after the SPring game next year either Brock or Carson transfers. One of the 2 , if not Gunner, will be recognized by the coaches and the players as the favorite, the other will feel the need to move on to happier hunting grounds. It would certainly be a bold and risky move to announce after the Spring Game that Gunner had moved to the favorite. Kirby would possibly stand to risk losing both BRock and BEck to transfers if he did so. I can't see Kirby putting himself in that vunerable of a position losing two highly rated QB's at once. Not going to happen.
Frankly, I would rather have a QB who is team first (as all of our players were last year) than looking for a "national" QB prospect who is looking first and foremost for grooming for an NFL career.
Beck was also recruited by Alabama..and I can remember a QB transferring FROM Ohio State to UGA recently. Vandagriff was committed to Oklahoma at one point, I guess that makes Oklahoma a 2nd tier team also 🙄 A walk on QB won a National Championship over several 5* High School QB's last season, including Bryce Young. Stars mean nothing, those are for high school accomplishments, nothing more. 5 stars does not guarantee success, that comes from hard work, dedication, and the will to win, not recruiting stars..GoDAWGS!
Love all 3 of the guys behind Stet. Would like to see Beck get a real shot this fall.
Re: recruiting stars, if I'm not mistaken, after Gunner committed, he did not do the whole "elite 11" camp circuit which hurts you in the final rankings. Which may be how they make sure all the top talent does these things methinks.?
JUst watched a young Arch Manning around age 11-12 with a Longhorn Jesey on saying he wanted to go to Texas. And I thought he didn't have clue about a month ago. That and the Texas QB coach must have rented an apartment in Arch's HS town, as the coach of his HS team made some statement about seeing him at the HS this past year as much as,whatever he said, I don't remember. LOL! He'd make a good poker player.