Georgia doubled down on Gunner Stockton after last year's CFP quarterfinal, now he's ready to kick in the door

Teams that earned first-round byes in last year's College Football Playoff famously went 0-4 in the quarterfinals, spawning a theory that rust outweighs rest in the 12-team playoff era.

That theory will be tested -- and likely debunked -- this week for a couple of reasons. For one, a flawed seeding formula that granted automatic byes to the four highest-ranked conference champions last season, regardless of overall ranking, has been corrected. This time, the best teams earned the byes.

Then there's the Gunner Stockton factor.

Last year, Stockton was making his first career start in a quarterfinal matchup against a nasty Notre Dame defense. He played respectably, but the No. 2 seed Bulldogs fell 23-10 for reasons that went beyond his inexperience.

One year later, No. 3 seed Georgia is again coming off a first-round bye with Stockton at quarterback -- only now he's a seasoned veteran who has earned the program's trust by delivering a series of big wins, carrying himself with the humble confidence of a Georgia farm boy.

Georgia is also facing an Ole Miss defense that is far less imposing than the Notre Dame unit it ran into in last season's playoff loss.

When the Bulldogs beat the No. 6 seed Rebels 43-35 on Oct. 18, Stockton produced a season-high 348 total yards and five touchdowns without a turnover. Georgia scored on every possession until it was time to take a knee.

That it was Stockton who authored such a sterling performance underscored how Georgia nailed its biggest offseason question after losing in last year's quarterfinals.

Validating Georgia's faith

If Stockton turns in another strong performance against the Rebels in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, it will spur Georgia into the CFP semifinals and further validate UGA's decision to promote Stockton from within.

As the Bulldogs' relationship with Carson Beck became strained in the aftermath of a UCL injury that ended Beck's 2024 season midway through the SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs didn't panic. 

Beck transferred to Miami, generating hype and headlines for an NIL package that reportedly paid him $4 million this season.

Instead of pursuing a shiny portal prize of their own, the Bulldogs used the money they could have spent on a big-name QB to build a championship-caliber team around the one they already had.

Internal promotion is rarely sexy in any industry, and that's especially true in sports. But it works for Georgia, which won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 with former walk-on Stetson Bennett at quarterback.

The one time 10th-year Georgia coach Kirby Smart went big-game hunting at quarterback, it didn't pay off. He snagged former USC starter and one-time blue-chip recruit JT Daniels from USC. It was only after an injury to Daniels in 2021 that Bennett won the starting job for good.

All Bennett did was guide the Bulldogs to the greatest two-year run in program history, even after Georgia recruited over him and gave a shiny transfer ample opportunity to outperform the champion who was under their nose all along.

Georgia couldn't afford to make the same mistake with Stockton, and it didn't.

Thinner margins

Back when the Bulldogs pursued Daniels, the NIL era was still in its infancy, and a program like UGA stood far enough above the pack in talent that it could survive a quarterback miscalculation.

Now, the margins are thinner. Programs like Ole Miss, Indiana and Texas Tech -- with a combined zero national title over the past 60 years -- illustrate how anyone can win big with the right investment and roster construction. 

Had Georgia spent $3 million-$4 million on a transfer quarterback, it might have made landing USC transfer Zachariah Branch financially implausible. Branch has added a much-needed element of breakaway speed to the Bulldogs' attack.

Spending big on another QB also would have made paying the core pieces of a blossoming offensive line much more difficult. It would have made amassing such a deep running back room a stressor.

Financial efficiency is more important now than ever before. No one nails every personnel decision, and you can rest assured that Georgia pondered possible Stockton alternatives. But the Bulldogs got it right.

Now, it comes full circle. Georgia has reached the stage where it was eliminated last season with Stockton as its quarterback. He's spent all season proving UGA's faith in him right.

Now he can prove to the rest of the country that the Georgia way is the right way.