Food for thought:
I posted earlier in the week last week that Gunner had some issues with batted balls, and many if you pointed out Stetson had the same issue in his first year as a starter. But so did Stafford on Sunday night.
One of the more fascinating concepts I learned when coaching football was that the offensive line is set up to pass block open lanes for the quarterback to pass. My immediate thought to why Gunner has trouble with this is his skill set…he’s programmed to run and said lanes are going to be flooded with guys looking to stop that. Should Bobo approach Gunner differently next year, allowing him to be more of a pure passer?
While I appreciate Stockton’s toughness, I have to wonder if all that running robs his ability to sit in the pocket and make better passes, like what we saw in Knoxville this year. There again, maybe the approach to play calling was to compensate for team shortcomings across the the line.
So is it the quarterback, or the offensive line? Discuss.
We don’t have a dual threat QB, and people complain the QB is a statue. We have a dual threat QB who doesn’t run, and we complain he isn’t being coached to get the yardage that’s there. We have a DT QB who is willing to run, and we complain he needs to stay in the pocket.
I tend to think this year was about Gunner getting experience as a college starter. There is a certain randomness about batted balls at the line of scrimmage (the ball glances off an arm or a finger tips it). What can’t happen is throwing the ball into a defender’s face mask like we saw in New Orleans.
Does Gunner need to get better? Absolutely. If you knew before the season these would be his stats, what would you think?
Passing: 251/355 (67.9%) for 2,894 yards, 23 TDs, 5 INTs.
Rushing: 442 yards, 8 TDs (2nd in SEC among QBs).
Games: Started all 13 games.
QBR (I know, I know): 84.9 (6th nationally)
Well said. Gunner will get better with more reps. Happy we have him.
Surprisingly, I have not seen anyone blame Mike Bobo for the game-ending pick Beck threw last night yet, but the day is young…..
Like Jello, there’s always room for blaming Bobo.
Bobo?
I blame Mark Richt.
Well, Richt has clearly lost control of the situation.
It did remind me of his time in a UGA uniform.
I laughed out loud when Beck threw that pick. My wife looked at me a little cross-ways as I was explaining my dislike for Beck. When he walked off the field without shaking hands with Mendoza after the game she finally got it.
Agree with all of these points. Well said.
Anything less than winning every game and covering the spread while during it will bring complaints.
There’s not a fanbase in the league that being honest wouldn’t trade their coaching staff for ours.
Maybe LSU only because they have to justify dropping their collective pants to get on the Lane train.
Definitely. He will likely be working on seeing the field better and making more decisions to throw downfield. Fingers crossed he’s got another level to get to.
I’m pretty sure Gunner had Tweety birds flying around his head during parts of the last 3 games of the season.
The “plus one” game is where its at in today’s college football. We need more designed runs with Gunner, not less.
The game hasn’t completely slowed down for him yet as we have to remember that before this season started, it had been almost 2-3 years since Gunner was playing live, QB1 ball. I’ll give him 2025 to get his sea legs back under him. He clearly defaulted to a run first approach rather than keeping his eyes downfield. I’d expect to see some improvement in ‘26 that as fans, we’ll probably be happy with. But he definitely played while concussed against Ole Miss.
Agree that he too often defaulted to his run first nature.
Will he progress past that?
Maybe.. Probably.
The first step is learning to trust his pass blocking.
Gunner certainly isn’t afraid of getting hit..he just hates taking a sack and takes the short gain with his legs instead of looking for the big play down field.
Gunner is a great team guy. Lovable with great leadership skills! He has a lot of heart and drive and from all accounts is very coach-able.
And he can zip the ball when he doesn’t feel the pressure to run.
Gunner’s stats for 25 are impressive..any improvement will be icing on the cake and should put him in NYC in 26.
I don’t get the suppossed humor of the tweet. WTF does Matt Stafford have to do with Bobo? Batted balls happen at every level to every QB. I would think they happen more often when you are leaning heavily on a short passing game in the flats or crossing routes vs putting air under the ball for a flag or a post route. But what do I know.
The joke is that Bobo gets blamed for everything, always by Bubba from Winder and his herd of acolytes.
dudemankind’s twix handle is Bubba from Winder.
The Bobo emotional support group makes more noise defending him for any minor slight than those who actually complain about the guy.
😆Bullshit.
Because bobo apologists create strawmen to make a point because it’s easier to defend than his stats and performance.
For years it was some obscure stat like “ our qb has the highest qbr when we are down by 2 scores in 4th quarters”
I’m like why are we down 2 scores in the fourth if he’s awesome. YMMV.
Obscure stat:
Kirby’s winning pct. vs yours.
What else need be said?
I don’t see anyone apologizing for Bobo.
What I see are people making the reasonable point that fans are in no position to second guess Kirby on the identity of any coach on the staff. The opposition to that flails and wails and spews nonsense.
What they never do is say:
“I know offensive coordinating better than Kirby Smart.”
I do wish they would.
I suspect that the reason for that restraint is the “obscure stat” referenced above.
Actually Im undefeated. I have a zero at the end of my KD in Iraq.
Since Kirbys decisions are infallable explain the New OL coach. Did it suck then or does it suck now Mr unpaid wordpress self appointed moderator?
You already admitted you dont say much in public at games in an earlier thread, so we already know how tough you are Mr Pop off at the Mouth on the internet.
I appreciate the complete lack of deviation from flailing and wailing and spewing nonsense.
I’m suddenly very convinced that you fuckers are worth listening to…if you need a laugh.
We know he’s not infallible. We also know he’s better at coaching football than any of us are.
But feel free to continue to resist that undeniable reality. After all, we can use a little comedy around here.
DLs are also being coached to clog the passing lane. Ole Miss did a good job of that against us and Miami. That 6’8″ DL made several deflections. When he saw he wasn’t going to get home with the rush, he would just stand at the line and watch for the ball.
Ben Dukes used to hang out on the old GTP blawg – I always thought he had good posts. I wonder if he knows we’re all hanging out here in the He-Man Gator Hater’s Clubhouse?…
Well he has a new O-line coach with nfl experience to protect him better. Stacey Sears is staying with the program but an analyst on the staff a young guy is taking over the O-line.
Can Bobo coach these issues out of Stockton’s game? Current sample size shows our QB is tough as nails, but a slow processor with a slow delivery. If his key reads aren’t there (or if he won’t throw it) he runs, exposing himself to a lot of punishment. Somehow, this needs to change.
The funniest thing about Ben Dukes’ tweet is the 2007 UGA team was outrageously packed with talent and should have won a national title.
15 players from that roster played in the pros, including:
Matt Stafford
Knowshon Moreno
Mohammed Massaquoi
Reshad Jones
Geno Atkins
Rennie Curran
And then we put our biggest post-season shelacking on a team pre-TCU.
Bobo is the reason we choked away the SC and Tenn games that season and blew a chance at a national title.
Instead, an inferior Les Miles led LSU team won the title that year.