What Gunner Stockton Needs to Do to Continue his Heisman Push Against Western Kentucky

Georgia Bulldogs starting quarterback Gunner Stockton finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting after the 2025 regular season. In a year where there were just four finalists, he was three spots away from being invited to New York for the ceremony.

Kirby Smart has helped produce one finalist in the past. Stetson Bennett was invited to New York and finished fourth in the voting. At that point in time during the 2022 season, Georgia was 13-0 and coming off of an SEC Championship game where Bennett was the star of the show en route to the Dawgs putting up 50 points on LSU’s defense.

Stockton finished the 2025 season with 2,894 passing yards and 24 touchdowns against just five interceptions. He also ran for 462 yards and 10 scores. That was with just one game after the ceremony.

The redshirt senior got off to a great start for individual trophy standard in the season opener against Tennessee State. In just over a quarter of action, Stockton completed 15/16 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t carry the ball for any runs because there was no point in risking him. Georgia knows how important he is.

While 202 yards is not a ton, the efficiency and the scoring matters for individual awards. A 94% completion is not realistic to expect from him moving forward but he was one of the most accurate quarterbacks in college football a year ago, finishing with a 69.7% clip.

There is a good chance Stockton gets pulled in the second quarter again or at the latest the early third with Western Kentucky looking like another weak opponent. Still, if that is the case, he can still do a lot of damage in a limited time if the Dawgs continue to be explosive on offense.

He needs to put up similar numbers if he is not going to play the whole game again. It would also help his case if he found the end zone with his legs. Posting similar rushing totals to last season would go a long way for him, as he runs more than most of the other quarterbacks on contending teams.

Miami clearly has a chance to land two finalists, much like Ohio State did a year ago. Through two games, Darian Mensah is 41/45 for 653 yards and eight touchdowns. Superstar wide receiver Malachi Toney has already hauled in 16 catches for 330 yards and four scores.

Arch Manning, Julian Saying, Jeremiah Smith and others are going to make a push.

What Stockton has that some of these players don’t is the opportunity to play on a big stage multiple times. Georgia will be in three marquee matchups this season against Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Alabama. This is in addition to three rivalry games and a probable SEC Championship push.

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