Kirby Smart’s Georgia had a pretty rough transfer season. They ended up losing 18 players. However, the Bulldogs’ head coach attempted to mitigate the damage by bringing in players to fill the void. Smart welcomed four transfers to the program following spring practice. As they missed the spring camp, July 31, the first day of the fall camp was meant to be their D day. But the fans’ eyes could not find this one notable transfer.

That’s none other than transfer running back Josh McCray. This came as a definite surprise. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound McCray, as Smart himself called is “a talented kid from a great high school program.” He transferred in from Illinois and was expected to show his power on the gridiron to be the perfect fit in Smart’s rush offense. But he was nowhere to be found during the 20-minute media viewing portion of the fall practice. And the Georgia fans might already be in panic mode. After all, they could let out a sigh of relief when Smart brought in McCray, who spent four seasons in Illinois, driving the program as one of the most reliable running backs.

Even Bret Bielema kind of regretted losing McCray to Smart’s squad. Talking to the media, the Illinois head coach said, “We did lose a guy to Georgia. Somehow, he found his way to the portal, and 12 hours after being in the portal, he was on a flight to Georgia. I don’t know how that happened, but it’s crazy.” In four seasons combined, he recorded 291 carries for 1,370 yards and 14 touchdowns. Last season alone, McCray made 117 carries for 609 yards and 10 touchdowns. With this, he came off as a steal deal for Smart and Co.

Moreover, Georgia was the SEC’s fifth-worst in third-down success rate last season at 39.2%. This marked the lowest ranking for Smart’s program, offensively, since 2016. Then, Georgia was looking for a second running back to play the backup role behind Nate Frazier. Does that mean McCray might be battling an injury? Smart remained tight-lipped and did not give any injury update. On the other hand, no media member asked about McCray’s availability, so no one knows where McCray was. While fans might not have a clue about the running back, Smart sounded confident about their quarterback plan, keeping the secrecy intact.

Kirby Smart is playing it close to the vest on the quarterback situation

Right now, the quarterback competition in the Athens camp is between Gunner Stockton and Ryan Puglisi. Turns out that Smart will be passing the torch to Stockton, who is considered to be more athletic than Jake Fromm. Comes off as a perfect package with a good arm. But like Fromm, Stockton, too, focused on building a good rapport in the locker room. Former Bulldogs QB Aaron Murray shared with Connor O’Gara, “Jake Fromm, kind of built like me, 6’1” 6’2”. Not super athletic, average arm strength, but guess what dude worked his b–t off. And I once again, I’m not saying that he didn’t do any of these things.”

He continued, “I’m just saying Jake Fromm did these to the extreme, was an incredible teammate, made guys around him better. Did the right things on and off the field, was the first one in the last one out. Always studying the film.” Turns out that Stockton is ticking off all the right boxes. However, Smart is not going to bring the cat out of the bag until the Bulldogs face off against Marshall, their season opener.

But after the fall practice, he did share an interesting thought on how confident he is about the quarterback situation. “Both of those guys have great ideas in the run game,” Kirby Smart said. “It may not be a new run by design, because you can’t reinvent the wheel. There’s an inside zone, an outside zone, there’s gap scheme. There’s different ideas. We have a quarterback who allows us to do more. They both have been around systems that involve that.” Talking about experience, Gunner Stockton is leading the race as he already has 83 career pass attempts and a start under his belt. On the other hand, Ryan Puglisi is yet to run a play in college. Smart may be busy steering the QB conversation, but fans have their sights set on one mystery: where’s Josh McCray?