Photo courtesy University of Georgia. Photo courtesy University of Georgia. Legend Vince Dooley was the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988 and served as UGA’s athletic director from 1979 to 2004. During his 25-year head coaching career, Dooley tallied a 201–77–10 record as his teams won six Southeastern Conference titles and the 1980 national championship. Following the 1980 season, Dooley was honored as college football’s “Coach of the Year” by numerous organizations. In 1994, Dooley was
Vince Dooley is arguably the most impactful figure in the history of the University of Georgia.
An athletic director for the latter half of his career, but most famously known as Georgia’s head football coach before that, Dooley coached several legendary Bulldogs in his 24 years, which included a national championship in 1980.
That list of players of course includes Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, as well as Buck Belue, Lindsay Scott, Terry Hoage and Kevin Butler, among many Bulldog greats.
But Dooley’s son Derek, speaking on his late father’s behalf, believes current UGA quarterback Gunner Stockton would have been one of father’s favorite players.
“Those were the kinda players that my father loved. Guys that would go out there and they’d lay it all on the line for the team, and for the university and for your teammate,” said Clayton resident Derek Dooley. “And that’s what Gunner Stockton does. He would have been probably one of his favorite players, for sure.”
Dooley was a football coach himself, working as an assistant on Nick Saban’s staff at LSU before eventually taking head coaching jobs at Louisiana Tech and Tennessee.
In 2026, Dooley, himself a former practicing attorney, began his career in politics, running for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
Stockton, who is close with the Dooley family and has dated Dooley’s daughter Julianna for six-plus years, is entering his final season of college football as the starting quarterback for Georgia.
The title of “QB1” of the Bulldogs is one he worked and waited for until his fourth year with the program.
In the ever-changing landscape of college football where players can jump into the transfer portal each year and ink NIL deals worth large amounts, Stockton chose to stay put. Stockton’s representative, Faryn Healy, confirmed that in a February report to On3.
“He (Stockton) could have earned two to three times more by entering the portal, but Gunner bleeds red and black,” Healy told On3. … “Gunner doesn’t play football at UGA for money. Leading that team is his lifelong dream.”
Stockton excelled in his first year of living out his lifelong dream. Georgia went 12-2 and won a second-straight SEC championship, while Stockton accounted for 34 touchdowns and finished seventh in the Heisman voting.
The Bulldogs, led by the former Rabun County standout, will begin the new season on Sept. 5 versus Tennessee State, with national championship expectations in front of them once again. While a new season brings questions about roster turnover, performance and more, the one question that has been answered time and time again is Stockton’s love for Georgia.
“You talk about legacy, the one thing that’s already been sort of cemented is the fact that Gunner Stockton loves Georgia,” Dooley said. “Here’s a guy that, in this new world of NIL, the last couple of years, could have left for a lot more money than what Georgia was paying him. But he wanted to be the starting quarterback. He wanted to earn it, and he loves the university.”