Georgia football: Gunner Stockton commitment proves Dawgs are the new QBU
With the commitment of five-star quarterback Gunner Stockton, Georgia football is quickly becoming QBU.
Death, taxes and Kirby Smart landing a five-star quarterback each year. Those seem to be life’s guarantees, with the Georgia Bulldogs landing yet another coveted signal-caller on Thursday. Indeed, 5-star quarterback Gunner Stockton just gave Georgia his verbal.
A 2022 product, Stockton is ranked the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback for his class by 247Sports and the No. 27 player nationally. While Georgia is focused on next week’s Signing Day to put the finishing touches on the 2021 class, landing Stockton this early is a great get for the program.
Georgia has landed several highly-ranked quarterbacks under Smart
Throughout his recruitment, Stockton picked up 23 scholarships. He chose Georgia over additional offers from South Carolina, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, LSU and many others. Stockton was previously committed to South Carolina but backed off his pledge.
What’s important for Smart here too is that Stockton stars for Rabun County High in Tiger, Ga. Smart has always preached the importance of keeping players from Georgia home.
With Stockton now on board, that means Georgia has landed four five-star quarterbacks since 2016, which is nothing short of insane. For 2021, the team has already signed five-star signal-caller Brock Vandagriff. Jacob Eason and Justin Fields are the other two five-star signees since 2016. And this doesn’t include USC transfer JT Daniels who was a five-star recruit when he signed with the Trojans and is expected to be among the Heisman favorites this year as the Dawgs starter from Day 1.
Georgia may be rivaling Clemson as QBU but the next trick for Smart is to develop them to the level that Dabo Swinney has done with Tajh Boyd, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.
While Stockton won’t arrive in Athens until January of 2022 at the earliest, the fact that Smart was able to secure his verbal pledge this early is monstrous. To haul in five-star quarterbacks in back-to-back years is remarkable and shows the tremendous job Smart’s staff does with recruiting.
The Bulldogs are already at seven verbals for ’22. Stockton is the second five-star commitment for the class with athlete Deyon Boule, also an in-state talent, on the list.
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