It has happened before, so it could conceivably happen again. The Georgia Bulldogs are about to play their first College Football Playoff game of the postseason, albeit without their starting quarterback. In the wake of Georgia earning the No. 2 seed as the SEC champions, they lost Carson Beck for the season, possibly forever, with an injured UCL in his throwing arm that required offseason surgery.
Enter Gunner Stockton, the promising former four-star recruit from the Blue Ridge Mountains part of the state. The man plays quarterback with the physical aggression that everyone in Dawg Nation seems to love. Unfortunately, he is not that much of a polished passer up to this point. For Georgia to win its third national championship in four years, Stockton will have to be the quarterback to carry them.
The good news for Dawg Nation is we have seen a backup quarterback do this before, albeit a decade ago. Cardale Jones was Ohio State's third-stringer entering the season back in 2014 before eventually cementing his legacy as a Buckeyes legend. Braxton Miller got hurt in the lead-up to the season before J.T. Barrett succumbed to injury down the stretch. Jones won three games that year.
By winning the Big Ten Championship, Sugar Bowl and national championship, he became a legend.
Gunner Stockton could emerge as the next Cardale Jones in the playoff
For Jones to lead Ohio State to its first national title since 2002 back in 2014, he had to help the Buckeyes beat Wisconsin in Indianapolis to get the No. 4 seed. From there, Ohio State had to beat top-seeded Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. After that, Jones and company had to get the best of Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota and the rest of the Oregon Ducks vaunted aerial attack.
What you have to remember is Ohio State was not guaranteed to make the playoff that season. A pair of Big 12 teams were chomping at the bit to get in with co-champions Baylor and TCU. Since the Big 12 did not have a conference championship that season, Ohio State's rout of the Badgers helped propel them into the inaugural playoff. From there, you could easily say that the rest was history.
As for Georgia, the Dawgs need beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl before getting the winner of the Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Penn State in presumably the Orange Bowl. Should the Dawgs get to the national championship, it will be in their backyard at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. They would face the winner of Oregon's side of the bracket between Oregon, Arizona State, Texas and Ohio State.
Overall, Georgia has a deep enough roster to navigate the challenges presented at the quarterback position. Ohio State was in an eerily similar spot a decade ago with Jones filling in for essentially Barrett. Both teams were led by an all-time head coach in Kirby Smart and Urban Meyer, respectively. The path forward was challenging, but keep in mind that everyone had to play their teams as well, too.
If Stockton continues to have the belief in his teammates, then Georgia can absolutely win the playoff.