Georgia capped off spring practice with its annual G-Day scrimmage, in which Team Red came out victorious 34-17 over Team Black.
The red was led by redshirt junior quarterback Gunner Stockton. Redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi headlined the stat sheet at quarterback for the black team. However, both got to work with the first-team offense (red).
Stockton got most of the work with the Red team offense. The Tiger, Georgia, native passed for 309 yards and two touchdowns while completing 17 of his 34 attempts. He had one interception.
Meanwhile, Puglisi finished with 172 yards and a touchdown, also with one interception. He completed 20 of his 46 passes. In his lone drive leading the Red offense, Puglisi completed all three of his passes for 52 yards. This included a 17-yard touchdown pass to Colbie Young.
Stockton found Jeremy Bell and Sacovie White for his pair of touchdown passes, while Daniel Harris picked him off. London Humphreys and Young caught Puglisi's touchdowns, while Dominick Kelly picked him off.
“Both did some good things and both did some poor things, which when you get in a game environment, they need that,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said of his quarterbacks. “They need a game environment. They need a pocket. They need live. They need to play football. And they continue to get better.”
With Carson Beck’s transferring to Miami, Georgia entered spring with a quarterback competition on its hands. Yet, despite no official starting signal-caller has been named for Georgia, Saturday’s scrimmage furthered the perception that Stockton is the starter, all but in name only.
“Confidence, understanding the offense, knowing when to take a shot, which he did do a great job today,” Smart said of where he’s seen Stockton grow. “He made a couple times that he could have thrown the ball, checked it down. He took shots that he probably didn't have to. But he's done a really good job with his feet, his legs.”
Both Colter Ginn and Hezekiah Millender also saw action with the Black team offense. Ginn, the redshirt freshman, completed his two passes for 57 yards and a touchdown. The true freshman Millender completed one of his two passes for five yards.
As for Puglisi, the former four-star from Paxton, Massachusetts, just completed his first full spring practice at Georgia after an injury limited him last year.
“Ryan's doing a good job. Ryan continues to get better. It's his first spring, …” Smart said. “He's still probably a little bit behind Gunner in terms of the knowledge of the offense. But he's catching up in regards to that. He's getting experience, knowing when to pull it down and run it, when to throw it away, just game management decisions. He's not going to do anything but get better.”