Getting Chill Bumps: Gunner Stockton is Falling in Love with Football All Over Again
ATHENS - It is easy for Rob Stockton to see his son Gunner play now. That wasn’t always the case.
Rob Stockton was present, but didn’t always have the ability to watch as Gunner Stockton racked up record after record in high school.
You see as Stockton galloped around the gridiron - chewing on his half-inserted mouthpiece while stomping opponents on the way to over 13,000 yards passing, 4,000 yards rushing and over 250 total touchdowns during his high school career - the elder Stockton had his focus on the Wildcat defense.
And that side of the ball usually didn’t get much rest because of how fast Gunner and the Rabun’s offense scored (Gunner and the Wildcats scored over 40 points more than 35 times in four years).
“He was coaching,” Gunner said of his father. “So when I was playing he was on the sideline with the video and everything.”
Only after everything ended did Rob Stockton see what Gunner had done in full.
“After the games on Friday nights we'd go home and watch it,” Gunner remembered of his time at Rabun. “And he's like: ‘Oh, that's pretty good… that was a good play.’”
Then there were times when Rob Stockton questioned his son: “What were you thinking?”
By that point the elder Stockton had seen plenty of what his son could do. The father coached the son while he was in elementary school - then things got serious.
“In high school he was the defensive coordinator for 14 years,” Gunner said. “When I was in eighth grade I played JV, so I was the scout team quarterback. I went against my dad every day.”
When they returned home from practice young Gunner gave his mother the tea.
“It was neat to go after practice and eat dinner, and I'm like: ‘Mom, you know, I kinda tore up dad's defense today.’”
When asked who his mother pulled for in the family tugs-of-war on the gridiron Gunner said with a smile:
“Me.”
Sherrie Stockton was perhaps Gunner’s first fan.
Both Stocktons have been there for their son. After the Dawgs’ difficult season-ending loss to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, Stockton said they comforted him all they could.
“They were there for me,” Stockton said. “Whatever I needed, they were definitely there for me. I really appreciate that because they weren't hounding me. They were just there for me if I needed them.”
“Last year, definitely didn't end up the way we wanted it,” Stockton said of the 2025 UGA Football season. “We came off the SEC win in the championship, but definitely didn't end up where we wanted.”
So now Stockton confronts a reality for himself, and the program he’s a part of. Georgia has not played for a national title since 2022 - matching the longest gap without playing for it all during Kirby’s time at UGA. The program has also won back-to-back SEC titles for the first time since 1981-82. Stockton is one of the few top quarterbacks in the nation to have not transferred - he’s very much home grown. And the fifth-year signal caller admits it is a “weird feeling” going into his final season at Georgia.
He knows his time in Silver Britches is running out.
“When you're standing in the tunnel and see everybody, all you can see is kind of that upper row and all the fans up there,” Stockton said of playing in Sanford Stadium. “You see red and black, it definitely gives you chill bumps. It's pretty neat to be like: ‘Hey, this is what I kind of dreamed of when I was younger.’”
“And I think that's the cool part. Some people lose focus on why you fall in love with the game of football. It's neat growing up in Georgia - being a Georgia boy - getting to play at the University of Georgia. It's definitely very special.”
PUTTING SWEAT IN THE BUCKET
The key to the out come of the 2026 season for Stockton and the Dawgs might not necessarily be the talent assembled or play calling. The fifth-year quarterback frequently talked about the importance of the program’s so-called skull sessions, which “build connection throughout the team.”
“It's a great way to get to know your teammates,” Stockton told Dawg Post. “Not just surface level stuff, but really knowing your teammates.”
Kirby and the Bulldogs implemented skull sessions for the program heading into Georgia’s championship 2021 season. The Dawgs had escaped with a 24-21 win over Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl at the end of 2020, and the head coach wanted to try something new, and develop a deeper connection in the program.
The move worked.
After Georgia’s 41-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game that year, the Bulldogs had to recover - and quick. Michigan was on the docket in the Orange Bowl, and a win over the No. 2 Wolverines would mean a rematch with either the Bearcats or the Tide for the national title.
Georgia leaned on the connectivity of skull sessions during the year to thump Michigan 34-11 before winning its first national title in decades by defeating Alabama 33-18. The skull sessions worked, and they’ve been a big part of Georgia’s program since. But this year Stockton and others have mentioned the importance of those meetings more often than in the recent past. It sounds like the Dawgs might be more connected than in the recent past.
“I thought it was a way I kind of fit in with some of the guys that I wouldn't have normally known,” Stockton admitted of the skull sessions. “Going into this year doing skull sessions and everything Coach Smart preaches on with our connection - I think that's helped a lot our team come together. All the experiences we had last year definitely makes it a little bit more comfortable this year.”
Georgia had to rely on those skull sessions repeatedly in 2025 during taxing games against Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss and the Gators. Stockton said Georgia’s has continued to work tirelessly on connectivity this summer.
“We put a lot of sweat in the bucket,” he said of his team’s work.
GRAB A LIFE JACKET
The facilitators of the mission were very clear with the assembled UGA football players - the person that at the front of the boat in white water rafting is in the riskiest position of everyone in the boat. Getting thrown out into the rapids is not out of the question for that person.
“You may fall out.” Kirby explained of the adventure. “When you go over a rapid you'll be nose down, and you're the first to go down into the water. “They said: ‘Okay who is going to be at the front of the boat?’ They explained this was the most risky position.”
Stockton, with his life jacket in tow, moved to the front of the raft.
“Made it as safe as we possibly could, but he chose to jump into that seat,” Kirby remembered. “I think that says a lot about who he is. He leads from the front. He takes hits. He embodies everything our program is about in toughness, in culture and the love for his university.”
“Gunner is that dude,” UGA linebacker Raylen Wilson said of Stockton. “I see it every day, day in and day out in practice. On the field, off the field, I mean, he's going to be that dude to lead us.”
Stockton also has to deal with the realities that are playing for Kirby and the Georgia Bulldogs, which does not come with a life jacket, but it does require think skin, and perhaps ear plugs. Stockton says he avoids social media, but he can’t avoid Kirby Smart on the microphone at practice in Athens - he’s not the only one.
“We signed up for him to be on the mic all practice, ripping at us,” Wilson said of Kirby on the mic during practice.
Stockton gets his fair share of Kirby’s amplified, let’s call it encouragement.
“If you can listen to Coach Smart and go out the next day and perform,” Stockton said. “That's a lot harder than listening to what people say.”
At one point Stockton’s girlfriend, who lived near UGA’s Woodruff Practice Fields at the time, heard the head coach talking about him.
“I heard your name,” she told Stockton of Kirby’s voice reverberating around Five Points. “Coach Smart was saying your name!”
Stockton’s response: “I'm glad you only heard my name.”
But Stockton said there is a method to the madness for Kirby on the mic.
“I think Coach Smart puts a lot of pressure for a reason,” he said.
Pressure is a part of being the quarterback at Georgia - playing under pressure in practice, but in games, too. Stockton repeatedly shined in 2025 with game-winning plays against Tennessee, Auburn, Ole Miss, the Gators and Texas.
“Gunner Stockton was probably the best quarterback against ranked competition last year,” ESPN’s Jordan Rogers said on air. “He was lights out; doesn't get the credit he deserves.”
His game-tying fourth-down dagger at Neyland Stadium gave Georgia a path to come back and shock the Vols on Rocky Top. But it was the win at Auburn that sticks out the most in terms of singular moments of connection and growth between Kirby and Stockton.
UGA was up 13-10, and Auburn was running out of time and timeouts. Georgia faced a third and short in the shadows of Auburn’s end zone. Stockton was to take the ball and get a first down and get down. But he saw an opening and dove into the end zone to give Georgia a 20-10 lead. Stockton could have gotten a first down and killed the clock by taking a knee. However unlikely, the score provided Auburn the narrowest of chances of coming back to win.
Kirby was irate.
“He has a lot of emotion on the sideline,” Stockton said of his head coach.
Stockton got an earful of emotion that night as he headed to the sideline. UGA fans erupted as rivarly win seemed secure. Kirby was giving Stockton the business.
Three weeks later, Stockton, Kirby and the Dawgs were in an identical situation in Jacksonville. This time Stockton got the first down by sprinting to his left and taking a knee at the one-yard line. Two kneel downs later and the game was over.
"We got it fixed this time, right?” Kirby said in response to Dawg Post’s question about the two plays after the win over the Gators.
“I think that's the cool part of having Coach Smart on the sideline doing that,” Stockton said of Kirby’s reaction at Auburn. “He's in the game. He’s 12th guy on the sideline. It’s awesome to have Coach Smart with that fire and passion.”
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
It had been a while since Gunner Stockton had been in a game where he attempted more than four passes. He had never played in a game at UGA with the contest in doubt.
By the end of the half against Texas in Atlanta, Stockton wouldn’t just have to throw it a few times. He would have to face one of the best defenses in college football - one that had not permitted Georgia to score a touchdown in the first half - and rally the Dawgs to a win.
“It had been a little bit since I got hit,” Stockton said of getting on the field after not playing for a while. “Then you get hit, it's like: ‘All right, like that's how it feels. Like you're playing ball again.”
He rallied the Dawgs to a win over No. 2 Texas and the SEC crown - announcing to the world of college football what he could do in a pinch. This year, after collecting numerous starts and another SEC crown, Stockton wants more.
“We can be a great team,” Stockton told Dawg Post in July of the 2026 Dawgs. “You can't copy and paste and do it again. You got to go out and prove it.”
For the Bulldogs that means tackling another schedule highlighted with challenging fights against Auburn, Oklahoma and Tech in Athens; the Gators in Atlanta; and trips to Ole Miss and Alabama. Georgia will start SEC play as a two-touchdown favorite to best Arkansas on the road.
Stockton says success this season will need to include a rebirth of sorts for players in Silver Britches.
“I think it's easy for college football nowadays to lose sight of having passion for football - loving the game of football,” he said. “I credit Coach Smart for that because everybody kind of refocused. I know why I played the game of football since I was six. Just getting to see everybody fall in love with the game again, and seeing everybody come together and play hard is really neat.”
The Bulldogs are are in a group of roughly six teams (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Texas and the Dawgs) projected as most likely to win it all this season. Natrually there are critics and skeptics of this edition of Bulldogs - including the acute criticism of Georgia’s passing game not being explosive enough.
“If you don't have doubters, you aren't doing it right. There are doubters everywhere,” Stockton said. “There's always something to improve on. We know what we have, and we're excited about the season.”
For his part, Kirby has sung Stockton’s praises for years. This summer he summed up his feelings on him this way:
“(Gunner” embodies what leadership is, and he doesn't do it through his mouth. We can't get the guy to talk half the time,” Kirby said of his starting quarterback. “When he gets around the players - they know. They see the toughness he plays with. He embodies our program. I just love everything he stands for.”
And what is that exactly?
“At Georgia, we just work,” Stockton said.
