Gunner Stockton Praised by Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit and UGA Program on College GameDay

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NEW ORLEANS - UGA Football will trot out Gunner Stockton for his first career start in the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame. 

Kirby Smart and his staff have moved onto Stockton after Carson Beck was injured in the SEC Championship game.

There was a segment on ESPN’s College GameDay Wednesday morning highlighting Stockton. He has obviously earned a lot of praise from the Georgia program over the last month, and that continued in New Orleans this week. In addition to Georgia, Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit made some positive comments about the redshirt sophomore. 

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Kirby Smart and Trevor Etienne

“He’s fearless. He’s not scared of anything, and that gets the team fired up,” Trevor Etienne said.

“He does it with a presence about him and a command about him. He understands the situation and no moment is too big for him,” Smart said. 

Nick Saban

“I’ve known Gunner (Stockton) since he was like eight years old. This guy won when he was in peewees, he won in junior high, he won in high school. I mean, this guy is a winner. He has won in everything that he has tried to do, and I think he’s got great competitive spirit, but I also think this guy is an athlete that brings some different things to Georgia’s offense that could be very helpful.” 

“I think that, first of all, Georgia showed great confidence in this guy.”

“This guy also adds great running ability to this offense.”

Kirk Herbstreit

“I love Carson Beck, but I personally felt there was a weight on him that the expectations - almost unrealistic expectations at the beginning of the year impacted him early in the year maybe. I don’t know that for a fact… but all that I know was in Atlanta… When Gunner went in there, we called the game and game and we didn’t know anything about him and found out obviously some good stuff about him, but to see the Georgia team respond… I think there is a lot to like, not just about him, but how it is impacting the guys around him.” Kirk Herbstreit.

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