Ex-Georgia Athlete Urges Gunner Stockton to Learn From Carson Beck’s Past as Kirby Smart Makes Intentions Clear

Moving into the 2025 season, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs got to heal a deep wound. They lost their quarterback, Carson Beck, to the Miami Hurricanes. There have been a lot of issues with their old quarterback. Beck threw an SEC-high 12 interceptions while also having some critical fumbles and misses along the way. The burden fell on his successor, Gunner Stockton, to whitewash Smart’s team’s image. The Bulldogs are coming off dishing out a 28-6 win against Austin Peay. On the other hand, Beck’s new team scored a big 45-3 win over the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, and the quarterback had a big role to play in it. That’s when the Georgia alum, Charlie Hegedus, urged Stockton to study Beck’s journey. 

 “And when you think about Gunner Stockton’s ability to run, that adds to the run game. But yeah, he can’t have catastrophic errors,” Georgia insider Dean Legge had already set an ultimatum. But looks like Stockton failed to reach that bar and ended up in the ‘disappointing player’ list of one of Georgia’s notable alums. But Smart refuses to walk that path.

Smart’s former wide receiver Hegedus re-tweeted a post by LSU alum Breiden Feheko. The original post had Smart’s former quarterback’s first touchdown in the Miami jersey. The caption read, “I keep telling folks on this app QB1. You better buy stock on Carson Beck. I been watching undeveloped QB play all day. This is what it looks like.” Resharing the tweet, Hegedus came up with his own take. He wrote, “There’s a reason Carson Beck had a Lambo and Gunner is in a 1980 pick up.  Ya’ll about crucified me last year blaming poor WR play and not putting blame on Beck.  Hopefully GS figures it out before next week.” 

There’s a reason Carson Beck had a Lambo and Gunner is in a 1980 pick up. Ya’ll about crucified me last year blaming poor WR play and not putting blame on Beck. Hopefully GS figures it out before next week. https://t.co/ozT4e12HzD

— Charlie Hegedus (@CharlieHegedus) September 7, 2025

Beck has hit the ground running in Coral Gables. Smart’s former quarterback shattered Vinny Testaverde’s 1986 Miami record, completed 22 of 24 passes for 267 yards, and threw a pair of touchdown passes. The Miami QB went off as an indomitable force as he connected with CJ Daniels in the corner of the end zone, extending the Hurricanes’ advantage to 28-3 heading into the break. Time to pan the focus to Stockton. 

Smart’s quarterback wrapped up the evening with a completion percentage of 76.47%, passing for 227 yards and no touchdowns. Even though Stockton was more involved in the passing game, he had the evening with a completion percentage of 76.47%, passing for 227 yards and no touchdowns. Time to decode Hegedus’ tweet.

He calls Smart’s former quarterback Beck a “Lambo,” meaning as a Lamborghini he represents speed, refinement, and top-tier quality. On the other hand, Stockton is a 1980 Pickup, which is useful, but it’s clunky, outdated, and lacks the smoothness or flash of a Lamborghini. Even though Beck bore the fans’ blows last season, he was not the problem; the wide receivers were. While Stockton is asked not to break his morale, a Georgia alum is already disappointed with him.    

Kirby Smart takes his QB’s side after Gunner Stockton disappoints a Georgia alum

Stockton has already put down the Georgia legend, former Bulldogs All-American and three-time All-SEC standout David Pollack. After Smart and co.’s not-so-great win over Austin Peay, the former player turned analyst took to his podcast to share his thoughts. That’s when Stockton caught a lot of side eyes. “I got some opinions that Georgia fans aren’t going to like,” stated Pollack.

And continued, “Nate Frazier touching the ball and fumbling right away was not a good start. Offensive line, the right side of the line is absolutely a mess now because it’s mangled. I mean, you just you’re down your right side of the line in a couple of games. That’s not good. The passing attack does not look good. It does not look in sync. The weapons look fine, but the connection and seeing it with Gunner, seeing it and delivering it, is not there yet.” But being the head coach, it’s Smart’s duty to keep his program together.

He became one of the biggest spokespersons for Stockton, standing with a big defensive shield. “Well, I actually need to see what he does in practice in the game. That’s the biggest thing, because we took a lot of periods last week to do throwing periods with rush, and do pressure pass periods–where you have to play in the pocket and win [from] the pocket. We did a lot of that last week in practice–a lot of play action shots…He did a really nice job of those things all week. He’s just got to continue to grow and get better, and get comfortable with it,” shared the Bulldogs head coach.  

Maybe that’s Kirby Smart’s way of coping with a win that does not feel like a win. After all, no one was expecting Austin Peay to provide much of a challenge for the Bulldogs. That too, after their dominant week one against Marshall, led by the electric quarterback Gunner Stockton. Fans might have been envisioning a few hundred yards stats besides Stockton’s name. But here we are. Let’s see how the quarterback learns from his stumble.  

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