Ryan Puglisi has never been one to shy away from a challenge.

Case in point: When Dylan Raiola was committed to Georgia, many wondered if Puglisi might reconsider his and seek out another school.

On the contrary.

Puglisi has always had a “bring it on” mentality” when it comes to competition. When asked about the possibility, the native of Paxton, Massachusetts, never flinched, expressing confidence that he’d be the man for the job one day.

The projected battle with Raiola never took place. Raiola changed his mind and matriculated to Nebraska, leaving Puglisi one step closer to fulfilling the goal when he signed with Georgia a year ago.

Of course, Gunner Stockton also wants the starting role after taking over the QB1 job in the Sugar Bowl following Carson Beck's elbow injury.

But don’t rule out Puglisi just yet.

When spring practice gets underway in two months, Puglisi figures to receive ample opportunity to show what he can do. After all, healthy competition is always beneficial to all.

“The coaches push you to be your best every day,” Puglisi stood UGASports. “When you do that when your number is called, you're going to be prepared and just kind of just doing the same thing every day, building a routine, working as hard as you can.”

In the year that has passed since he arrived on campus before the Orange Bowl against Florida State, Puglisi feels progress has been made.

“There’s everything in your game you can always get better at, just trying to push everything in your game to the next level and just fine-tuning a bunch of things,” he said. “Being a quarterback, the mental side is a big thing, too. So, I think the more I watch film I watch and being able to gain knowledge from other quarterbacks like Carson and Gunner, and just picking up things from them, it’s going to help my game.”

Bulldog offensive coaches were impressed.

Because Puglisi was in Athens for spring practice and spent more time learning the system, the freshman began repping as the team’s No. 2 quarterback behind Stockton when Beck went down.

That message was loud and clear for Jaden Rashada.

After transferring to Georgia on April 28, Rashada re-entered the transfer portal on Sunday, leaving Stockton, Puglisi, and incoming freshmen Ryan Montgomery and Hezekiah Millender as the only scholarship quarterbacks on the team.

With Montgomery and Millender true freshmen, it’s conceivable the Bulldogs will try to find another quarterback in the transfer portal. The Bulldogs made a strong pitch for former Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza before he signed with Indiana.

“Jayden is a guy that got here a little bit late, didn't get here until summer, and has kind of been trying to play catch up and figure things out,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said of Rashada last week. “Since the SEC Championship, he's gotten more reps, and with more reps you've seen him improve and have a better understanding of the game plan.”

That’s where Puglisi had an advantage: more reps.

Bobo was impressed with what he saw.

“He's a guy that's got a strong arm. He's a guy that's one year in this offense, is learning the offense, and studies extremely hard,” Bobo said. “He’s more athletic than people give him credit for and has a good understanding and takes command when he's in the huddle and shows all the attributes you'd like in a quarterback.”

Puglisi said his first year in Athens has been everything he expected.

Although he did not see any action in games, the work he was able to get in during practice pushed him in ways he had never been pushed before. He feels he’s a better quarterback for it.

“It's pretty much everything I've expected,” he said. “When I was getting recruited, they told me they were going to push me, push me hard, and that's exactly what they've done. I love every second of it.”

Whatever happens this spring, Puglisi said he’ll be ready.

“Yeah, I think being here for about a year now has been amazing. I've been able to learn a lot of things from a lot of great people,” Puglisi said. “Obviously, we're held to a higher standard. You've got to work really hard, watch extra film, do extra stuff just to be anything close to that standard that they want you to be.”