Enoch Autry/The Clayton Tribune. George Bobo watches the Rabun County Wildcats’ scrimmage game against Franklin (N.C.) High School on Aug. 11. Standing beside Bobo is David Rogers and the two have given years of dedication to the program. RCHS started its 2026 season on Aug. 28 with a win over visiting Metter with former Wildcat head coach Lee Shaw.
The Stockton and Bobo families have known each other for several years.
Following George Bobo’s coaching tenure in Thomasville – where he is a member of the Thomasville-Thomas County Sports Hall of Fame – he came to Rabun County to be an assistant coach on the Rabun County High School football team.
The head coach of the Wildcats then was Sonny Smart, the late father of current University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart.
At the time, the younger Smart and Bobo’s son, Mike, now UGA’s offensive coordinator, were Bulldog teammates and friends for several years before that.
Bobo – a quarterback guru – has worked with the likes of Stetson Bennett, Jake Fromm, Billy Napier and plenty of other signal callers in his lifetime.
Among the names on that long list is Gunner Stockton, who he began training at the age of 6, per request of Stockton’s father, Rob, himself a Rabun County Athletic Hall of Fame and Georgia Southern Athletic Hall of Fame member.
In those early training sessions, Bobo was impressed with 6-year-old Stockton’s arm strength, throwing “bullets” in the RCHS gym, while training alongside Rabun County then-quarterback Wes Holcombe, who now is the current RCHS wide receivers coach.
Stockton’s training, which continued until eighth grade, focused on quarterback fundamentals like footwork, throwing motion and more.
By the time he was a starting QB in middle school, Stockton could throw the football half the length of the field, while also making tackles at the line of scrimmage as a safety, a position where his father earned All-Conference honors at Georgia Southern.
“When he threw that hard pass as a 6-year-old, I knew then. Wow, I’ve never seen one (like him),” Bobo said of Stockton. “As he became older and watching him through the, in those little games when they played that youth league, you’d see him throwing the ball downfield 30 and 40 yards and making catches and you go, ‘Wow.’ I would just go ‘Rabun County’s got a good quarterback.’”
As Stockton continued to train with Bobo before his prep playing days, the Stockton and Bobo families grew close. That included many fishing trips with Bobo – who has earned the nickname “GP” as a grandfather – and his grandsons, Drew and Jake.
During a trout fishing trip when the three boys caught a fish they had to keep, the elder Bobo instructed Drew to hold the fish for a picture of the three boys, to which he declined. Bobo’s younger grandson Jake denied the same request once directed.
“Gunner picks the fish up and holds the fish standing between us. Rob’s laughing at them,” Bobo said. “They were all young but it didn’t bother him to do that. Fear is not a real thing with him because of preparedness.”
In Stockton’s high school playing days, he shattered state records while leading Rabun County to four-straight region championships, drawing scholarship offers from practically every powerhouse program. But one program in particular drew his eye.
In August 2020, Stockton committed to South Carolina, whose offensive coordinator at the time was Mike Bobo, the son of the elder Bobo who trained Stockton. Months later in January 2021 however, Bobo took the offensive coordinator position at Auburn.
Five days after Bobo’s move to Auburn was announced, Stockton decommitted from South Carolina. Just over two weeks after decommitting from the Gamecocks, Stockton committed to the in-state Georgia Bulldogs.
In January 2022, Stockton enrolled at UGA. That same month, the university announced that Bobo was being brought back as an offensive analyst. He coached at his alma mater from 2001-2014 as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the latter half of that time.
Just over a year later, Bobo was promoted to be the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator following the departure of Todd Monken, who left to take the same role with the Baltimore Ravens.
Fast forward to 2026 – long since Stockton was a 6-year-old training with the elder Bobo and all the stops in between – Stockton will head into his final season at Georgia.
Mike Bobo is still his offensive coordinator, and Drew Bobo, who used to fish with Stockton when they were children, also heads into his final season as the team’s starting center. The youngest Bobo, Jake, is entering his sophomore season as a reserve quarterback for the Bulldogs.
While the boys probably still fish on occasion, one of their new hobbies is golfing, something that Stockton said he spent more time doing this offseason, at SEC Media Days.
Stockton’s competitive spirit that is displayed on the gridiron has carried over to the links, too.
“He goes ‘I want to beat Coach Mike,’” Bobo said of Stockton golfing with his son and grandsons. “They played right before they started camp and he (Jake Bobo) went, ‘Dang GP, Gunner and Drew beat me and Mike. Gunner beat Dad again.’ When you’re a competitor you always want to do your best against people you respect.”
Regardless of if it’s golf, fishing, or football, it all has come full circle for George Bobo. Bobo, now 75 years old, watched Stockton and his grandsons go from trout fishing and playing football as children to men at the University of Georgia.
“That’s the Lord doing that,” Bobo said of Stockton, his son and grandsons being together at Georgia. “It’s a special time in this old man’s life, just to sit back and just watch it. … I’m not the fan who criticizes, I’m just the person who smiles inside and goes, ‘How lucky I am to have been a part of all this. Just a small part.”