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G-Day: Red Team Rolls
Spreading the ball around to 13 different receivers and playing solid defense, the Red team edged the Black, 34-17, in the Georgia football team’s G-Day spring scrimmage in front of a crowd of 35,033 at Sanford Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Gunner Stockton, who took over at quarterback in the SEC Championship Game last season after Carson Beck was injured and started against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff, led the Red squad to the win. He completed 17 of 34 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns. His top target was wideout Dillon Bell who finished with five catches for 78 yards. Sacovie White suited up at wideout for both teams and finished with a combined five receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Ryan Puglisi, who started at quarterback for the Black team but also had some snaps with the Red, was a combined 23 of 49 for 224 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver London Humphreys had four catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns for the Black. Overall, the Red out-gained the Black 441-313.
The Red team got creative on its first play from scrimmage, with Stockton throwing a screen pass to the left to wideout Colbie Young, who then tried to complete a pass up the sideline to tight end Oscar Delp — but the pass fell well short.
Later, on the Red team’s second drive, Stockton produced the scrimmage’s first big play, a dart down the middle to tight end Lawson Luckie for a 26-yard gain. The Black defense forced the game’s first turnover soon after when cornerback Daniel Harris intercepted a deep ball in the right corner of the end zone.
The Red team took a 3-0 lead with 40 seconds left in the first quarter on Peyton Woodring’s 35-yard field goal, capping a nine-play, 50-yard drive. The possession featured a 12-yard rush to the right by running back Chauncey Bowens and a 15-yard reception by tight end Jaden Redell.
The Red defense continued to make life tough for the Black offense, but on third-and-14 at the Black 42, Puglisi hit wide receiver CJ Wiley for a 35-yard gain up the right side, with Wiley making a one-handed grab while well covered. Later, Puglisi hit White for nine yards on third-and-5, setting up a first-and-goal at the 9.
On third-and-goal at the 5, linebacker Chris Cole tipped Puglisi’s pass down the middle and the ball sailed out of the end zone. Kicker Liam Badger connected for a 23-yard field goal to tie the game 3-3 with 3:48 left in the half.
The Red squad got back to work on its next drive and started with a 13-yard end-around rush by Dillon Bell. Two plays later, Stockton hit wideout Cole Speer up the left side for 15 yards, to the Black 41. With 1:29 left in the half, the Red faced a fourth-and-6 at the 37, and Stockton hit wideout Zachariah Branch up the right side for a 36-yard gain to the 1. Frazier ran the ball in on the next play to make it 10-3 with 1:19 left in the half.
Cornerback Dominick Kelly got the ball right back for the Red team with an interception and 31-yard return up the left side. Stockton nearly hit Young for a touchdown on the next play, but Young was ruled out of bounds when he made the catch. The Red eventually had to settle for a 44-yard field goal by Woodring, putting the team up 13-3 with 29 seconds left in the half.
The Black team got the ball to start the second half and backup quarterback Colter Ginn hit Humphreys for a 50-yard gain to the Red 20 on the first play of the drive. Later, on second goal at the 7, Ginn hit Humphreys for a touchdown with 11:51 to go in the third.
Puglisi led the Red team on a touchdown drive to push the lead back to 10, 20-10, with 7:21 left in the third. It started on the ground with two good runs by Bowens for a combined 17 yards, featured a 19-yard catch by Dillon Bell, and ended when Puglsi hit Young for a 17-yard score on the left side.
The Red team went ahead 27-10 with 3:17 left in the third when Stockton, back in at QB, hit Dillon Bell for 49 yards down the middle on the first play of the drive, and then hit Jeremy Bell for a 31-yard score on the next. The Black answered with a scoring drive to wrap up the third quarter, cutting the Red lead to 27-17 on a short shovel pass from Puglisi to Humphreys for a 3-yard score. Running back Bo Walker had a 30-yard run to the 3 to set up the touchdown.
In the final two minutes, Stockton hit White for 24 yards and 23 yards on back-to-back plays, the last for a touchdown in the left corner of the end zone to make it 34-17 with 1:23 remaining.
Defensively, both teams got interceptions in the secondary, both teams put pressure on the quarterbacks, and the teams combined to knock down or break up 16 passes. Linebacker CJ Allen led the Black defense with eight tackles, including three for loss. Linebacker Justin Williams led the Red defense with nine stops, three of them behind the line of scrimmage.
The Bulldogs return to Dooley Field on Aug. 30, when they kick off their 2025 season against Marshall.
Kirby Smart’s Postgame Comments:
“I’m excited about the spring game. Got an opportunity to play a lot of guys today. Got a lot of snaps in, probably more than we typically do, and I like the pace that it went at. We got done right at two hours and ended up getting about 15 or 20 more snaps than we’ve gotten in past years. It was good tempo, some good and bad for both, but that’s the way spring games go. We got to play some loose plays, throw the ball around. Got to do some two-minutes. Excited about the guys we got to play. We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of offseason and getting ourselves where we need to be for next year, but a lot of the mid-years got valuable minutes. I can remember when mid-years kind of went with the threes and fours, and now it seems like more of them are going with the twos. That’s just the way of college football right now. So, excited about the work we’ve had and looking forward to progress we make into fall camp, into the next season.”
On his immediate takeaways from Gunner Stockton and Ryan Puglisi’s play today…
“Both did some good things, and both did some poor things, which when you get in a game environment, they need that. They need a game environment. They need a pocket. They need live. They need to play football, and they continue to get better. They understand they have some weapons on the outside. We had to rely on those guys to be able to make some plays. I think both those guys understand the offense. Ryan’s come a long way in what was really his first spring, and he made some nice throws.”
On how he feels about his younger running backs…
“I’m excited for those two [Bo Walker and Chauncey Bowens]. They both got better in the spring. I thought Dwight [Phillips, Jr.] had a good spring. Nate [Frazier] had a good spring. And then Cash [Jones] took less reps than anybody because he’s the guy that’s had the most, but he continues to grow and get better. So, I’m really excited about all those backs. They had good spring practices.”
BSB: Dawgs Even Series with Arkansas
Seventh-ranked Georgia snapped top-ranked Arkansas’s 12-game SEC winning streak and evened the series with a 7-6 victory over the Razorbacks Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 3,633 at Foley Field.
Fast Facts
- The Bulldogs once again took an early lead as graduates Nolan McCarthy and Ryland Zaborowski each singled in the first inning to drive in a total of three runs.
- Senior Robbie Burnett (2-for-3, 2 RBI) launched a two-run blast to left field in the second to put Georgia up 5-1 and record a team-leading 16 home runs on the season. Burnett currently ranks second in the NCAA for home runs.
- Not to be outdone, Zaborowski (3-for-4, 3 RBI) sent his own solo shot over the center field wall in the third inning to match the team lead with 16 home runs on the season and set a career-high in RBI in a season (53)..
- Junior Kolten Smith (3-1) matched a season-high eight strikeouts and recorded his third win of the year in a five inning start. Davis Chastain, DJ Radtke and Charlie Goldstein pitched in relief with junior Matthew Hoskins getting the final three outs for his second save.
Key Quote
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
On Matthew Hoskins closing out the game on the mound…
“I went out there to talk to him about a first and third play in case something happened. We had a couple of guys in the pen ready to go, but he was pretty convincing. Usually, I don’t get too emotional when you go out there to meet in those tight situations, if the move’s the move, we do it. He was very convincing though. Before I even crossed the line, he was looking at me going, ‘I got this. I am going to get this done and I am going to get it.’ That is one of the things we have been talking about. When you go through rough patches, it is easy for your confidence to waiver a little bit because this game is hard, this league is hard. I just told him post-game that’s how you believe in yourself right there.”
On a chance to win the series…
“We will be back here in less than 24 hours and, like I told them after the game, just eat, sleep and hydrate. They need to get ready to go and just come back, respect the game and keep playing. We just have to come out and command the strike zone. We can’t chase. You have got to command the strike zone. The team that wins is going to be the team that comes out and commands the strike zone and gets off really good swings. At the end of the day, that’s going to be the team who wins the series.”
Ryland Zaborowski | Gr. | 1B
On bouncing back today after yesterday’s game…
“We met before our team meeting today, and everyone had a piece in that meeting, but it was just, ‘Let’s have confidence within ourselves.’ We’re not only doing it for us, we’re doing it for the fans. We’re doing it for our brothers in the dugout. After yesterday’s loss, we took it personally. We wanted to come back today.”
Matthew Hoskins | Jr. | RHP
On the team win
“We’re really good, they’re good, and we’ve won a lot of games this year after being down late in the game. We battled some adversity, and this team knows it, but that’s just part of baseball.”
Up Next
Seventh-ranked Georgia (31-6, 9-5 SEC) plays the rubber game of the home series against No. 1 Arkansas (32-4, 12-2 SEC) Sunday here at 1:02 p.m. (SECN+)
SB: Dawgs Even the Series at Auburn
AUBURN, Ala. – The 18th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs beat the Auburn Tigers 10-5 on Saturday afternoon, leveling the weekend series at Jane B. Moore Field.
Georgia improves to 27-14 on the season and 5-11 in SEC play.
FAST FACTS
- Sarah Gordon tied a career-best four hits, all singles, a new season high, while driving in three runs on Saturday.
- Jaydyn Goodwin scattered three hits including a home run, scored three runs, and drove in two.
- Along with two hits from Dallis Goodnight, the trio combined for nine of Georgia’s 14 hits. Seven of Georgia’s starting nine had at least a hit in the game.
- Emma Castorri’s first career triple in the top of the seventh provided insurance for the Dawgs, widening the lead to 8-5. Goodwin’s two-run home run widened the late leas to 10-5.
- Lilli Backes worked three innings in her start, allowing three earned runs with a pair of strikeouts.
- Destin Howard worked one and two-thirds innings while Rachel Gibson pitched a third of an inning. Gibson was awarded the win as the pitcher of record when Georgia took the lead in the top of the sixth.
- Randi Roelling earned the save, her third of the seaosn, pitching the final two innings, not allowing a run and just one hit. She struck out three.
SOFTBALL | at AUBURN | W, 10-5
Winning pitcher: Rachel Gibson (6-2)
Save: Randi Roelling (3)
Losing Pitcher: SJ Geurin (17-8)
Season Record: 27-14, 5-11 SEC
UP NEXT
Georgia and Auburn will decide the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET streaming live on SEC Network+.
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