The Georgia Bulldogs obviously should have played better in their 16-9 victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Yes, it’s always nice to win a rivalry game, but Kirby Smart and Georgia fans have much higher aspirations than simply squeaking by the likes of Georgia Tech.

Following the game, Kirby Smart was asked plenty of questions pertaining to Georgia’s struggles and he didn’t try to hide or shy away from addressing the team’s issues. The defense wasn’t the problem. The running game wasn’t an issue. It all boiled down to the same deal the offense had to fight through at the beginning of the season: Gunner Stockton, and how he sees the field.

Kirby Smart addresses Gunner Stockton missing huge opportunities for Georgia Bulldogs against Georgia Tech

Any time that a college football team fails to reach even 100 yards passing (unless they’re a service academy) that’s going to be a red flag. Gunner Stockton managed just 70 total passing yards on 21 attempts against Georgia Tech on Friday, and almost every single yard gained looked more difficult than it needed to be. It was Stockton’s worst game of the season and perhaps his entire career statistically, and Kirby Smart didn’t shy away from that fact — although he does need to “see the tape” first:

“I want to see the tape and see [with Gunner Stockton’s performance]. Obviously it wasn’t great. There was some drop-eight [coverage] in there. There was some pressure he took on. A couple batted balls. He’s got to do what he’s coached to do. That’s the toughest thing, is Mike [Bobo] and [Brandon] Streeter got to put him in great situations. There’s a couple plays that we think were out there that we didn’t make. [Gunner] will watch the tape and he’ll grow from it and get better. So will the rest of the team…We were not as explosive. We were able to run the ball some, but we missed some shots. Let’s call it what it is. We had a couple shots that if we make those we may break the game open, but we didn’t hit them.”

At first, Kirby Smart obviously didn’t want to pile on Gunner, but he quickly redirected course and just decided to be honest. Stockton’s play wasn’t great. In fact, he missed the most important opportunities of the game, ultimately making this contest much closer than it needed to be. Yes, Georgia Tech was doing their typical mix of drop-eight and some creative disguises here and there on defense that made life a bit difficult, but Stockton simply looked completely lost. He did manage to find Zachariah Branch a handful of times, including for the team’s lone touchdown, but even on that play it was all on the wide receiver adding value, nothing Stockton really did.

Gunner Stockton is picked off! pic.twitter.com/nAMrxZ6fn4

— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 28, 2025

Stockton looked completely out of whack from the get-go, throwing an interception early in the game, and he never looked the same after that. This is the kind of thing early-season Stockton would do. He would make a mistake, or fail to execute perfectly, then shut down, settling for everything on underneath passes almost exclusively. And what made matters worse is that he didn’t even know when to tuck and run. Hesitance. Confusion. Perhaps a reversion to an inability to read his progressions. There were so many things clearly wrong with Gunner on Friday. He’ll need to fix that if Georgia wants to have any chance in the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, and Kirby Smart knows it.

We’ll be back with more Georgia Bulldogs coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!