The University of Georgia opens spring practice Monday with the kind of roster returning most programs spend years trying to build, and with the one evaluation question the program has been carrying since November still in need of an answer.

Kirby Smart's Bulldogs return eight starters from a defense that ranked in the top twenty nationally last season. The offensive line, which generated favorable conversation throughout 2025 for its reliability in power running situations, returns its three interior starters. The program is the preseason consensus favorite in the SEC and has finished in the top five of the national rankings in each of the last four seasons.

The question that frames the spring is at quarterback. Gunner Stockton started the last thirteen games for Georgia and is entering his first spring as the unambiguous starter under Smart. His body of work over the past two seasons has been encouraging in the specific ways Smart's system values — he manages the game with care, protects possession in the situations where the offensive design can win without requiring a quarterback-generated play, and has avoided the decision-making collapses that have ended other quarterbacks' Georgia tenures prematurely.

What the spring is designed to evaluate is whether Stockton can consistently win in the situations where game management is not sufficient: on third downs where the defense has prepared specifically for the run, on possessions where the opposing offense has scored and the Bulldogs need points from the passing game rather than from field position. Smart's Georgia has found ways to win with quarterback management models before. The question the evaluation community wants answered before the fall is whether Stockton can produce offense independent of the system's structural advantages.

He will work against a defense that the program has characterized as entering the spring with championship-level depth and returning experience at every level. That competition is as close to useful data as spring practice produces. Georgia's coaching staff wants real evaluation information. With eight defensive starters back and a quarterback entering his first full spring, they are going to get it.

The spring window runs through April 18.

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Sources: "Tracking 2026 college football spring practice schedules," On3 | "SEC football spring 2026 power rankings," Athlon Sports | "2026 college football spring preview," ESPN College Football