This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting walks back down memory lane to the time when Gunner Stockton was an elite high school recruit. He was rated as the nation’s No. 7 QB and the No. 124 overall prospect for 2022 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking listed him as the No. 9 and at No. 145 overall for that cycle.

When Gunner Stockton graduated early from Rabun County High School, he was rated as a top 10 QB nationally by the major services. He was the nation’s No. 124 overall prospect by the 247Sports Composite.

That’s after watching his early high school 5-star ranking take a dip because he didn’t do the All-American camps and showcase circuit. He chose not to compete in the Elite 11 because it mattered that he never missed a workout or a practice for the entire four years of high school with his team.

When Carson Beck graduated in 2020, he was ranked as the No. 254 overall recruit in the country. That’s the thing with the Georgia Bulldogs, they see a two-year starter with strong NFL potential go down against Texas and somehow replace him with a higher-rated high school prospect.

That’s what the recruiting sites said about Stockton’s potential. The production he had in Georgia Class 2A football was the stuff of legend.

Stockton played in 53 high school games. He either threw or ran for a staggering 254 touchdowns. That’s an average of 4.8 touchdowns for every single high school game he played in.

That’s the first thing that DawgNation and every Georgia football fan needs to know about the likely starting quarterback for Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Did you know the weekly DawgNation.com “Before the Hedges” program is available as an Apple podcast? Click to check it out and download it.

Gunner Stockton was a prolific high school player in Georgia

The Stockton stat line needs a Georgia Tech man to compile and compute it all up.

That sort of high school production allowed him to break Georgia high school records set by future national champions and first-round picks Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

Critics might point out Rabun took advantage of some poor teams to rack up those stats in GHSA 2A football. But there were a lot of games where Stockton was leading his team in Gatorade sips in the second half, too.

DawgNation also saw Stockton at the All-American Game in San Antonio competing against the nation’s top prospects. The speed of the game and the quality of opponent was not too much for him as he scored a touchdown in the game. He also made plays all week in practice.

Check out the highlights from when Stockton’s Rabun County team faced off against the top small school program in Georgia so far his decade. Prince Avenue Christian was led by 5-star Georgia QB commitment Brock Vandagriff at the time.

Stockton, just a junior at the time, led Rabun to the win. Both QBs would both wind up in Athens.

That’s a lot of scrapbook moments, but there was also his entire senior year when he and his fellow seniors cleaned up their locker room after every practice and game.

That’s so the custodians wouldn’t have a lot of work to do when they came in.

Gunner Stockton: Where did that first name come from?

When I was covering Stockton on a regular basis during his high school career, he had a habit of saying “Shoot” before a lot of his answers. Brock Bowers would do the same thing.

That’s not where that perfect QB name straight out of Hollywood central casting comes from.

The story begins with the notion his parents believed in a “circle of life” with their children. They searched for uncommon names that had a link to the family. His mother, Sherrie, brought up a connection to a family member named “Georgie” when they named their daughter.

His older sister is actually named Georgia, too.

That method also applied to Gunner. It would’ve been appropriate to name him that while dreaming of a rocket arm at shortstop or 254 touchdowns as a high school QB.

“Gunner has a family name, too,” Sherrie Stockton said back in 2020. “Rob’s granddad was in World War II. Both of his grandfathers were. He was actually a gunner on the belly or nose of one of those planes.”

His great-grandfather passed away before he was born. The name was meant to honor him in the same way Georgia honored “Georgie” when she was born.

A newspaper article led to that first name. During that time, soldiers were identified in print as Airman Jones or Aerial Gunner Sgt. Stockton. “Gunner” Stockton served in the Eighth Air Force. That was the same squadron made famous by the “Memphis Belle” story.

“His great-grandfather was a togglier,” his uncle Allyn Stockton said. “They toggled off and on with the bombs. Part of his job was to pull the arming pins out of the nose of the bombs.”

Allyn Stockton said his grandfather completed nearly 20 missions with his squadron but was shot down at least two times. The newspaper account of his service didn’t refer to him by his first name, but rather his role in the military and then his full name.

“He was listed as Gunner Stockton and Rob was like that’s a really cool name,” Sherrie Stockton said.

That was the plan.

“You know how it is,” his mother said. “When you are pregnant, I never told anybody about it. Because I said to myself I know I am naming him ‘Gunner’ and if anybody says anything ugly about it, it is going to make me mad and I don’t want any of that. So I never told anybody what his name was going to be.”

His great-grandfather’s name was actually V.D. Stockton. He was a district attorney in the Rabun County region for about 30 years. He was very well-known in the community.

Rob and Sherrie found the right name choice with that audible to his military role.

“With all of that said, there was no way we were calling him V.D. with that name,” Rob Stockton said while cracking up.

When Gunner played baseball coming up with the famous East Cobb program, a coach who had worked with former Georgia QB Jake Fromm noticed him. That coach even named him  “Little Jake” because of the vast ability and poise he showed at an early age.

“It is funny how life goes like that,” Sherrie Stockton said. “We knew who Jake From was and had heard all about him before just about everyone else in Georgia did.”

There are so many great Stockton stories. Like the time he asked for cattle for Christmas. He got a bull, five calves and five heifers for his herd. Tending to that was his after-school job.

Or the CB radio he would have fun talking to his guys with while driving his grandfather’s old 1985 Ford pickup. It had almost 300,000 miles on it. He could have had a much nicer truck, but he wanted to drive that.

The CB radio was much more fun than the cellular phone during one stretch of his high school days.

But the genesis of his first name takes first place in all the Stockton backstories.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, left, talks with Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton during practices on the campus of Barry University, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023, in Miami Shores, Florida. Georgia is preparing for their game against Florida State in the Orange Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. (Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com) (Jason Getz/AJC Freelancer)

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will see special 1-on-1 content with key 2025 prospects like Ethan Barbour, Ryan Montgomery, Elijah Griffin and Justus Terry

Gunner Stockton: The “stock” in Stockton’s game

That’s where that perfect first name comes from. What about the game necessary to score all those touchdowns?

Stockton comes from a very athletic family.

His father, Rob, was one of the greatest safeties in Georgia Southern history. Eagle fans still remember his No. 14 fondly. He was named to their athletic hall of fame in 2008. Rob Stockton started his last 48 games as an Eagle and finished with 322 career tackles.

Sherrie Stockton, his mother, left her name high up among the all-time leaders at Erskine College as a scholarship basketball player.

Gunner’s older sister, Georgia, was a scholarship college basketball player at Presbyterian College. The All-State selection averaged 21.1 points per game, shot 40 percent from behind the arc and 80 percent from the charity stripe.

His father was also the defensive coordinator for Rabun while Stockton was scoring all those touchdowns. He had a dream for what he hoped his son would always be on the football field.

“I think a goal for our family has been for both of our kids to love the Lord,” his father Rob said back then. “I know that will seem like a cliche’ so much now but we pray that they truly love the Lord but not have to tell people about it. Do you know what I mean by that? Where they will just look at you and can tell that you love the Lord. By your actions and then just your spirt. Not their words.”

“They will know you by that when you are in the classroom or on the field. They just sense that something special about you. Not because of you. But a greater deal there. Who you follow in life.”

Let’s be clear. That does not mean a meek mind or spirit.

“With all that said, I have begged of him to be that when he is outside the white lines,” his father continued. “The kindest. The gentlest. The best friend. Opening doors for women and ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘no ma’am’ and that’s him. Thankfully. But when you step across those white lines, then that is time to unleash hell. Be that person.”

Stockton did rain down those 254 touchdowns worth of hell, too.

All-American QB Gunner Stockton of Rabun County High School is a 2022 commitment to the University of Georgia. (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

Gunner Stockton: The Bobo family connection

His first offer came in the eighth grade.

That was at a camp when he launched balls farther than two future starters at Power 5 programs when he was still in middle school. That story traces back to the camp when North Carolina gave him his first offer.

When he was asked to go meet the head coach in his office, the family wondered if they did something wrong. Maybe they broke something, they thought.

That camp singled him out for his arm strength and accuracy, but nobody was expecting an offer. Appalachian State and Larry Fedora at North Carolina basically offered him at the same time.

It was right about the time Stockton ripped one 66 yards that day at that camp. Clemson, along with every school in the country, would soon flock to Rabun.

The Tigers once told Stockton he was the No. 1 QB on their board. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs were also a major player in his recruitment from the start.

Stockton didn’t initially commit to Georgia. He committed to play for Will Muschamp at South Carolina. That was because the Stockton family had been committed to offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and his family since he was in elementary school.

Bobo’s father, George, was a legendary high school coach in Georgia.

He was also the coach at Rabun County before his retirement. When he did, he became Stockton’s throwing coach as he worked his way up the elementary, youth ball and middle school ranks.

George Bobo, the father of the longtime Bulldog QB and offensive coordinator, started training Gunner when he was six years old. It was nothing to see Gunner fling a ball 30 or 35 yards in the air back then.

That’s how Stockton could launch that rocket 66 yards while he was still in middle school to earn his first offer.

When Bobo was the offensive coordinator at South Carolina, that was the reason why he was initially a Gamecock. It is now only fitting he was calling the plays for Stockton in the SEC Championship Game against Texas.

Bobo has basically known Stockton and his family his whole life.

Rabun County has seemed like Grand Central for the fathers of coaches on the UGA staff. Kirby Smart’s father, Sonny, also coached at Rabun County and still lives in that area to this day.

Legendary Georgia Hall of Fame coach Vince Dooley was known for having a house on Lake Burton, too.

Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo talks to Georgia’s quarterback Gunner Stockton (14) before the G – Day game at Sanford Stadium, Saturday, April 15, 2023, in Athens. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com) (HYOSUB SHIN / AJC/AJC Freelancer)

Gunner Stockton: What he said when he committed to Georgia

The timeline of his recruiting decision tells a story. He committed to South Carolina on August 20, 2020. That was before his junior season. He wanted to commit outside of the season to not to be a distraction to his team.

Muschamp was fired at South Carolina on Nov. 15, 2020.

Stockton decommitted from the Gamecocks on Jan. 12, 2021. He committed to UGA later that month on Jan. 28.

The decision came down to Auburn and Georgia. Bobo had already been hired as the offensive coordinator for Auburn at that point. The Tigers offered him four days later, but that was not enough time to offset years of “classy but driven” recruiting by the UGA staff.

When Stockton committed to Georgia, the Dawgs had Stetson Bennett IV, Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff in the QB room. That did not matter to him.

What mattered was to find a “family” fit and feel.

“Who is at the school that they want to be at for years down the road and are where they are going to stay?” his father once told DawgNation. “That’s one of those things that are big to him.”

When Gunner chose Georgia, he told DawgNation something I will never forget. It was the sort of thing a kid with a CB in his 1985 Ford pickup truck would say on the drive home to tend to his cattle.

“Georgia is where I’m going and where I’ll graduate,” he said.

Nobody says that these days. Especially quarterbacks.

When things got tough and he wasn’t playing, he planned to look internally. Not to the transfer portal and an easier path to starting at QB.

That’s what being the son of competitors and a high school defensive coordinator instilled in him.

“Anywhere you go, you are going to have to compete,” he said back in January of 2021. “But now with the portal and everything, you don’t know who’s going to be there. So just get there and compete and have fun.”

It was the same thing he said about Georgia after his sophomore season.

“I’m not looking at who’s there,” Gunner Stockton said in early 2020. “Like at Georgia, there’s always going to be a guy there. Or two guys there. Or the transfer portal. You just got to want to be there, fit that right fit wherever you decide it is and then go out while you are there and do the best you can.”

It is now that time. Time for DawgNation to see him do the best he can.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart talks with Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton (14) after Stockton threw an interception during the fourth quarter against Texas in the 2024 SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Saturday, December 7, 2024, in Atlanta. Georgia won 22-19 in overtime. Jason Getz / AJC) (Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com/AJC Freelancer)

SENTELL’S INTEL

(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)