Next Man Up, If Anybody Can Find Him
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 4, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Sunday, October 4, 2026
Georgia lost another receiver in the 38-14 win over Vanderbilt, and Gunner Stockton played his best game anyway with whoever was still standing.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
They tell me Thomas Blackshear caught three passes for 33 yards Saturday, one of them on third down, before he left the 38-14 win over Vanderbilt holding his shoulder and didn't come back. Kirby Smart, never one to bury the lede, gave the medical report like this: "I'm not sure how bad it is. It's (a) shoulder (injury)." I have had doctors tell me less, and charge me for it. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details, and the details are not good for a receiver room that was already thin.
DawgNation reported that Georgia played Vanderbilt without Isiah Canion, out with a right leg injury, and without Tyriq Green, Amaris Williams and Marcus Harrison too. With two of its top outside receivers gone, Georgia threw to the tight ends in the red zone, which is what you do when the cupboard has a can of beans and a tight end in it. My mama used to make supper out of whatever was left in the icebox. It wasn't pretty, but you went to bed full.
A good quarterback makes do, and a really good one makes the leftovers look planned.
Here is the remarkable part. Gunner Stockton went 25-of-32 for 295 yards and three touchdowns, and Smart told reporters he "did an outstanding job with execution, played probably his best game." He did it throwing to a lineup that kept changing on him. Landon Roldan, who 247Sports noted caught a touchdown and a 55-yard pass, went from somebody you had to look up in the program to somebody worth remembering. A good quarterback makes do. A really good one makes the leftovers look planned.
Smart, to his credit, isn't pretending everything is fine. "I'd like to say we're lucky to be 5-0," he said, pointing to injuries and players shuffling in and out of the lineup. Then somebody asked about Alabama and he went to the oldest line in the coaching book: "It's the next week in the SEC, guys. They're all big." That is true the way "it might rain" is true in August. Some of them are bigger than others, and the big one is coming to Tuscaloosa Saturday night.
Because while Georgia was patching its receiver room, Alabama went to Starkville and beat an unbeaten Mississippi State 56-23. Yahoo reported that Keelon Russell threw for more than 300 yards and four touchdowns, and Alabama won by 33 on the road. Meanwhile 247Sports wrote that Georgia's secondary looked vulnerable for the first time this season, with Vanderbilt's backup quarterback making more than his share of plays. So Georgia is short receivers, Alabama has a quarterback in a groove, and the desk calls it a coin flip. Hope somebody brought a lucky quarter.
The Notebook
- THE BIG ONE: Georgia at Alabama, Saturday at 7:30 PM Eastern. The desk rates it a coin flip and is in no hurry to pick a side.
- MEANWHILE IN COLUMBIA: No. 25 Missouri beat No. 8 Florida 45-17. ESPN reported Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards and three scores, and Florida's Jadan Baugh was held to 13 yards.
- SOUTH FLORIDA SUNSHINE: No. 4 Miami beat Clemson 41-13 in what Yahoo called the Hurricanes' first big test of the season. Turns out it wasn't much of a test.
Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.
Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.
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