Georgia QB Gunner Stockton has had a solid season with the Bulldogs and will require the attention of the Gators. Stockton is currently completing 70% of his passes and has over 1,500 yards to go with 10 TDs and just one INT.
And in the buildup to the Florida-Georgia game, Stockton told ESPN a tale about his grandpa so wild and tragic that it almost seems too crazy to be true.
Gunner Stockton tells wild story about the Florida-Georgia rivarly
Mark Schlabach of ESPN ran a piece previewing Saturday's game and featured Stockton's deep roots with Georgia.
He recounted a story involving his grandfather, Lawrence Stockton, having a heart attack following the 2010 meeting between the two teams, which Florida won 34-31 in OT:
"He had a heart attack there at the stadium. Every time we go to Florida, I really want to beat them bad in Jacksonville."
Lawrence Stockton died of that heart attack, and as his widow, Suzanne Frederickson explains, the last words out of his mouth are even crazier:
"He said something about [then-Bulldogs defensive coordinator] Todd Grantham and collapsed."
Todd Grantham of course would eventually become Florida's defensive coordinator and drew the ire of many during his time in Gainesville as well.
This is almost guaranteed to be a story that gets picked up on the broadcast on Saturday, and it is going to be interesting to see how much of the overarching storyline revolves around it. Even Georgia fans didn't seem to know about this story prior to it going public on Thursday.
For Gunner Stockton, he came into the year having to fill Carson Beck's shoes. Stockton did close out the SEC title game and started in the playoffs, but he didn't look great in either appearance.
He's looked far more comfortable this year, and Florida can't assume he is going to self-implode like Beck did last year against Florida.
The Gators will enter Jacksonville with a 3-4 record, but have renewed hope of their own with interim coach Billy Gonzales at the helm.