The Georgia Bulldogs are fully entrenched in their offseason program. The transfer portal is closed. National Signing Day was last Wednesday. Spring Practice doesn’t start until next month. Without much to really report on, podcasters, sports analysts, and beat writers are making their typical season prediction content in February.
One such outlet, On3’s Crain & Cane, had DawgHQ’s Rusty Mansell on to discuss Georgia’s upcoming season. Among other things, they discussed the topic of Gunner Stockton, and it took a strange turn.
Jake Crain, the show’s host, mentioned in the episode that he would actually prefer to go up against two-time national championship-winning quarterback Stetson Bennett, rather than Stockton, Georgia’s current quarterback.
“When I watch Gunner Stockton play, I’m going to be 100 percent honest with you, I would rather play against Stetson Bennett than Gunner Stockton,” Crain said. “I’d rather play against Stetson. I think if you put Gunner on the team – Stetson was great, Stetson did a lot of great things, it’s a great story, this, that, and the other. But Stetson was also on some teams that, we weren’t in the ‘you can’t monopolize’ yet, really, aspect of it. Gunner’s natural ability as a runner, to me, you talk about (Fernando) Mendoza reading the zone read right, and the RPO right, when you look at the evolution of Gunner Stockton, to me, I don’t think it’d be a bad idea to sprinkle a little coin on him to win the Heisman.”
Bennett was a former walk-on quarterback at Georgia who had two stints in Athens between 2017 and 2022, where he left as the most decorated passer in program history. He played in four College Football Playoff games, winning all four and being named MVP in each.
Stockton just completed his first season as UGA’s starting quarterback. The former 4-star from Rabun County, Georgia, led the Dawgs to a 12-2 record. He replaced Carson Beck in the 2024 SEC Championship Game, making him a back-to-back conference champion. However, he has also quarterbacked UGA in consecutive first-round College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl losses.
Mansell replied to Crain:
“The scouting report’s out, and after the Tennessee game, Tennessee played him man to man, and he shredded ’em. I mean, he made some throws in that game. That’s what you wanna do cause you run off the coverage, he can hurt you with his legs, and if you give him one-on-one, Gunner’s got a good enough ball. The next progression for Gunner Stockton and everybody started playing it was playing zone. They were dropping back, making you dink and dunk, making you make the reads and get down the field. Can you do that? At times, he did. At times, he was very hesitant to throw the ball down the field.”
Rewind to Crain’s comment on Stockton being a frontrunner for the 2026 Heisman Trophy. Stockton finished No. 7 in the Heisman voting in 2025 and could very well be a Heisman finalist in 2026. I’m a big Stockton fan, however, this wouldn’t be doing anything that Bennett hadn’t already done. The only difference, as Crain highlighted, is the talent on the roster.
Crain doubles down on his claims that Bennett only accomplished what he did because of the talent around him.
Yes, Bennett was fortunate to play with one of the greatest defenses in the history of college football, but the dude was still a total game-changer. Carson Beck had the luxury of playing with Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey and look where that got him.
“Here’s how many points Georgia gave up in games in 2022: 3, 0, 7, 22, 10, 0, 20, 13, 19, 6, 14. You gave up 30 to LSU, you won 50-30. You had Brock Bowers. You had Ladd McConkey. I could stop there, but you had Darnell Washington. You go through the list, it’s ridiculous the amount of talent, but Stetson was a beast. He really was.”
