Kirby Smart shares brief update on QB situation ahead of Sugar Bowl vs Notre Dame
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke to the media on Monday, Dec. 23 as the Bulldogs get ready to take on Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Smart shared a brief update on injured starting quarterback Carson Beck, who was ruled out of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals with an elbow injury.
He could provided the severity of Beck’s injury at the moment but mentioned that the senior quarterback is still weighing his recovery options.
“The only thing I can update is that they’re still going through those deliberations in terms of decision-making, process time, all the kind of decisions they have to make as a family,” Smart said.
With Beck sidelined against the Fighting Irish, that means Georgia’s backup quarterback Gunner Stockton will suit up as the starter for the Sugar Bowl.
The pivotal matchup will officially mark Stockton’s first career start.
While the sophomore quarterback doesn’t have much real in-game experience, he does have plenty of first-team reps under his belt which he took during Georgia’s two-week downtime following the SEC Championship.
“Well I would say just experience, right? Just practice,” Smart said when asked how the extra time off has helped Stockton. “He got lots of reps prior to these practices. but he’s getting much more now. I do think knowing that, you know, when you get ready for an opponent like Notre Dame, you need time. We haven’t known who we were going to play for you know, I guess now what, 24-48 hours we’ve known, 72 hours.
“There’s certainly a lot of time in prep you can do to prepare for that. We prepared for some of that prior to that because we knew it would be within two opponents. But I think the biggest thing is just the competition at practice. You know, the situations we put him in, all those things allow him to get better as a quarterback.”
Stockton, a former four-star prospect from Tiger, GA, completed 25 of 32 passes for 206 yards in three games for the Bulldogs ahead of their playoff run.
As he is expected to start for Georgia next fall, the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 will be the perfect chance for him to win Bulldogs fans over early
