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Mark Schlabach
ATHENS, Ga. — Coach Kirby Smart told Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton that he wasn’t going to run much in Saturday’s game against Ole Miss as a precaution because of an oblique injury he suffered in last week’s win at Auburn.
Stockton’s response: “I want to run it. That team needs to see me run it.”
Stockton ran it plenty and did much more in No. 9 Georgia’s 43-35 victory over the No. 5 Rebels at Sanford Stadium, providing a much-needed spark in the Bulldogs’ latest come-from-behind win.
“We were concerned he wouldn’t be able to go and there was no [flinching] in him,” Smart said of Stockton, who didn’t practice Monday and Tuesday before returning later in the week. “He’s wired for these tight moments because he’s tough. His team believes in him.”
Stockton completed 26 of 31 passes for 289 yards with 4 touchdowns, including three to tight end Lawson Luckie. Stockton also ran 10 times for 59 yards with 1 score.
Georgia piled up 34 first downs and 510 yards of offense, and never punted in the game.
Stockton completed 12 of 12 passes for 135 yards with 3 touchdowns in the second half, including two scores in the fourth quarter, when the Bulldogs outscored the Rebels 17-0 and controlled the ball for more than 13 minutes.
According to ESPN Research, Stockton is the first quarterback to go 12-for-12 or better in a half against an AP top-five opponent since California’s Aaron Rodgers did it against then-No. 1 USC in 2004.
Smart said Stockton’s toughness permeates throughout his team.
“Absolutely,” Smart said. “The offensive line, they see it. They see how that kid plays. They want to play for him. They want to compete for him. The backs, too. The receivers, they love Gunner.”
Georgia needed all of Stockton’s production because its defense couldn’t stop the Rebels, who scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions to take a 35-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
It was the first time the Bulldogs had allowed an opponent to do that in a game since Smart became coach in 2016.
Smart said the turning point in the game occurred after Stockton threw a 3-yard touchdown to tailback Nate Frazier to cut the Rebels’ lead to 35-33 with 12:56 to go.
On the sideline, Georgia offensive tackle Earnest Greene IIIFrazier and other offensive players ran to their defensive teammates to motivate them to stop the high-flying Rebels for the first time in the game.
“I thought they inspired the defense,” Smart said. “I think the defense felt the juice.”
Georgia’s defense forced its first three-and-out, and the Rebels had to punt with about 12½ minutes remaining. It was the first time either team punted in the game.
“That’s the good part about our defense: They never quit,” Stockton said. “On the sideline, they never had their head down or had bad body language. They did a great job fighting.”
The Bulldogs responded with another touchdown drive when Stockton found Luckie for the third time for a 40-35 lead with 7:29 remaining.
Then, Georgia’s defense forced another three-and-out, and the Rebels had to punt with about 6½ minutes left.
“It felt like we weren’t dead out there, just that we had some bad calls at certain times [and] we had bad execution,” Georgia defensive lineman Jordan Hall said. “We couldn’t get off the field on third down; that’s something we haven’t been getting done all season. We knew it was time to buckle up and just go out there and make a play.”
Holding a five-point lead, Georgia faced third-and-3 at the Ole Miss 24 with 2:09 remaining. Smart said he considered going for another first down to try to seal the win but let Peyton Woodring kick a 42-yard field goal to make it 43-35 with 2:06 left.
Even after the Rebels ran up and down the field through the first three quarters, Smart still had enough confidence in his defense to stop them one more time.
After Kewan Lacy ran for 12 yards on the first play, Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss threw four straight completions. Bulldogs defensive tackle Josh Horton batted down his pass on fourth-and-10 to seal Georgia’s victory.
“I just told the guys that’s a culture win because you don’t win that game if you’re not physically tough, mentally tough,” Smart said. “We call it hard to kill. And the one thing we are, we’re hard to kill. We won’t go away.”
But Smart, who leaned on a record-setting defense to lead his alma mater to back-to-back CFP national championships in 2021 and 2022, admitted his team isn’t head and shoulders above its competition like it was then.
The Bulldogs had to come back from a 21-7 deficit in the first quarter to knock off then-No. 15 Tennessee 44-41 in overtime on the road on Sept. 13. Last week, Georgia trailed 10-0 in the second quarter before shutting out Auburn the rest of the way in a 20-10 win.
“I’ve always felt like we’ve got good fourth-quarter teams,” Smart said. “We just have had so many leads in the fourth quarter because we’ve been better than everybody else. We’ve had this distance and this margin that the game didn’t come down to one little thing. Our margins are smaller. The margins are tight everywhere.”
The Bulldogs will get an open date before playing rival Florida in Jacksonville on Nov. 1. With a home game against No. 21 Texas and a neutral-site contest against No. 12 Georgia Tech still to come, Smart knows there might be more close calls.
“One of our coaches said it best,” Smart said. “He said if we can run the ball and stop the run, which we have done that, we’ll be in every game we play. It’ll just be holy hell to win it.”
