Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Kirby Smart shares âwhatâs nextâ for Gunner Stockton, areas he expects improvement


ATHENS â Georgia quarterbacks are coached up to take what the defense gives, but thereâs a process to that, and Kirby Smart is counting on Gunner Stockton to progress.
Comments
This is not a call to replace Stockton nor questioning his ability. I am in 100% support of him so don't read incorrectly into this but I thought our offense looked clunky. After the early drives I just didn't feel we showed fluidity in our playing. I get that we were playing vanilla but even a limited playbook should have been smooth against a rebuilding, lesser opponent.
I'm hoping the kinks and jitters are worked out this week and we see the team we expect to see.
i think he needs more reps. But his ceiling is also limited. Bobo needs to call plays that accentuate his strengths but I’m not counting on him adjusting.
Bobo adjusting that is
O Line makes such a difference. Getting 4 yards on 1st down vs 2 yards is huge. Play calling looks clunky when players don't execute or can't move their man. Some of it is scheme. Gunner has his checks and reads, and the last thing he needs to think about is some D lineman getting in his face or hitting him from behind. Clean pockets and good run game make all the difference. Gunner has gashed Marshal with his feet, which will help keep linebackers and safety's honest, but it won't do everything.
Still waiting for more medium to long vertical passes from Stockton and maybe some back shoulder throws. If he can't feel confident throwing those kind of balls to the best WR Corp we've had in years, then I have to wonder truly how far he can take this team...hopefully we'll see more of that kind of passing the further we get into the season.
No sarcasm but just a question. Kirby is calling for Gunner to trust his O Lone. The question is Can he fully trust his O Line ? I imagine it’s took him some time to shake off the nightmares of being slaughtered vs ND last year.
There were several plays vs Marshall that Gunner’s feet saved him from being sacked. But there was one play in particular where a Marshall defender blew right through the middle of the O Line and put a very solid hit on Gunner just as he was releasing the ball.
Respect and Trust are not taken they are Earned. Searls and his O Line need to Protect Gunner and Open holes for our RBs. In other words do their job. Now these things said I Believe they Can and I Hope to see improvement.
Put yourself in Gunner’s shoes if you had his ability to run and you see the O Line breaking down would You let some huge DT or DE slam You to the ground ? And often ? I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes but I certainly Hope that KS has had a very zealous discussion with Searls about the O Line improving. I’m very convinced that IF the O Line does their job Gunner will do his.
Just want to say also that my last comment was not to give Gunner a built in excuse for any of His failures. When he screws up and it’s All on him I’ll be just as critical. But the O Line absolutely Must ramp up their game for Gunner and our RBs as well to have success. Let’s hope they saw film of their game and want to do better.
"hand off to Cash Jones up the middle". Word for word what the announcer said. If I never hear that phrase again I am okay with that.
I was thinking the same thing… OL need to earn that trust, and not being able to manhandle a team they clearly should have would give anyone serious pause. And as jdat13 said below, everything hinges on that dadgum OL. Maybe they're leaving all their "fire, passion, and energy" on the practice field, then too beat up or tired come Saturday… but that room needs to dial it up big time or else get fully whupped when we get into the core of SEC schedule. Go Dawgs!
I watched both the Miami and Dawg’s games this weekend and was amazed at how little time Gunner had to pass compared to Beck. It looked like we were facing Notre Dames defensive line and Miami was facing Marshall’s. I’m praying our OL improves quickly and I’m tired of the lame excuse that we are lacking continuity due to injuries. We were certainly able to weather injuries when Pittman and Luke were coaching so what the heck is going on? Hopefully I’m wrong and our OL will look great the rest of the season, but if not I hope CKS will make the difficult coaching decisions. Go Dawgs!!!
But I think you’ll agree at least I hope you will. He has to have Time for those WRs to get deep. It’s hard to plant your feet and throw an accurate pass with a huge DT or DE right in your face. It takes time for our WRs to separate from the defender get deep and open. And from what I saw vs Marshall out O Line is not giving Gunner that needed time. I’m confident that if they’ll give him just a couple of ticks better he Will accomplish what you and All of us want. But they get Much better and Very soon !!
Question for Yall if you could only have One between the two which is more important Execution of plays by the players or Play calling by the coaches ?
I say execution by the players. What If we had a Truly dominate O Line with the RBs and WRs we have ? And mobile Stockton ?
I think we could go pretty far even with the most basic play calling if we had a truly dominate Monster O Line. But we don’t and it looks like we’re Far from it.
Why ? Best of my poor knowledge O Line recruiting has been pretty good. So Why aren’t we seeing better performance from the O Line ? The answer is quite obvious. Searls.
So if Bobo isn’t very innovative in play calling and Searls is just drawing a check. It’s not gonna matter if it Gunner, Pugs or Tom Brady we’re not gonna have much success. Kirby needs to privately give Searls an ultimatum behind closed office doors. Either I see significant improvement Very soon or you can clean out your office Coach Searls. Add a Mike B. are You listening ?
Crap I hate to have a negative attitude. But I had the game recorded and watched it again. There are HS O Lines performing better than ours !! They are not blowing people back off the line of scrimmage !! Not opening holes for our RBs. And Gunner had to save himself several times, and in most of those he made positive yds out of a negative play. But that won’t happen against superior defenses.
I sure hope KS doesn’t defend Searls job in particular and maybe Bobo to by placing the blame on Gunner or Pugs if he brings him in.. Not saying he’d do that. But make these coaches earn that big pay they make !! OK I’m off the soap box.
Maybe I got my skivvies all in a **** for nothing. Maybe we’ll see a much better performance from the O Line this Sat. They to deserve the benefit of doubt. We’ll see……
@navydawg…Agreed. I meant to kind of infer that in my comment…as in we'd better see some real improvements all around on the offensive passing game. That definitely needs a solid O-line that gives Gunner enough time to make his reads and get the ball off downfield. I said it Sunday…just hard to tell how good or not-so-good this team is when we play these kind of patsy games. Sure, some backups get some playing time, but we also got a key injury on the O-line in Gaston. What good is that?
Ohio State came out and looked fantastic on defense. Their offense was good enough, and they beat a very good opponent in their first game. So did LSU. So did we see lackluster performance from the O-line because of who we played, or are they just not as good as we need? We were 6/16 on 3rd downs but 3/3 on 4th downs. We did run the ball for 239 yards, so that's a positive for the O-line.
I'll be glad when we get rid of at least (1) of these patsy games and add another SEC opponent. It can't come soon enough even if we lose. I see little benefit in playing a Marshall or Austin Peay other than giving Stockton some more scrimmage time. He needs real opponents to sharpen the sword!
Can you elaborate on what you mean re: Stockton's limited ceiling? In the end, everyone has an ability cap. What do you see as his, and based on what? Asking because I'm legitimately interested in the answer.