How camp performance has helped Brock Vandagriff make up ground in Georgia QB competition

After Georgia’s spring game, all signs pointed toward Carson Beck becoming the starting quarterback. That led to questions about whether Brock Vandagriff would stick around with the transfer portal still open, but he ultimately opted to stay in Athens.

As fall camp rolls on and the season opener approaches, it appears Vandagriff has made the quarterback competition a little more interesting. In fact, DawgsHQ senior editor Jake Rowe said he has started to close the gap on Beck.

“Carson Beck — I think someone asked the other day, what’s your confidence level? 9.5, that Carson Beck is going to be the starter,” Rowe told On3’s Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “But it may have been at a 10 before preseason practice began because Brock Vandagriff has had a really good camp. I think he’s made up some ground.”

Beck has the most experience of the two quarterbacks and turned in a strong showing in the spring game. But Vandagriff is making things interesting despite a rough showing in the spring scrimmage, and that’s why he’s adding more intrigue to the competition.

The biggest question, though, comes with how Kirby Smart looks at experience as a factor. Beck has appeared in 10 games over the last two years while Vandagriff has played in just four. That difference could be a key factor in Smart’s decision, and Rowe said that’s a big reason why he’s still fairly confident Beck will start under center.

But the staff also has to look at both best-case and worst-case scenarios for the two quarterbacks. On both players’ best days, Rowe argued Beck and Vandagriff aren’t much different. But on their worst day — which we might have seen from Vandagriff in Georgia’s spring game — Beck could present the higher floor.

“The issue I think you run into with those guys is No. 1, knowing Kirby Smart and the way he likes to run the program, the fact that Carson Beck has so many more snaps — and it’s still not a ton of snaps. But 100, 150, 200 snaps in his career is going to play a factor in that. I think that we’ve seen that before. Seniority matters at the quarterback position.

“The fact that Brock Vandagriff, I think his ceiling, if you take great Brock Vandagriff and great Carson Beck, I think it’s probably similar. But when you look at floors and what happens when it goes bad — which you know as well as I do, Andy, these coaches loves to think about that scenario. What’s the worst and who’s the least bad whenever it’s bad? I think that the floor for both guys is very different. Carson Beck’s is a little higher and Brock Vandagriff’s is kind of in some ways unknown, but also concerning them I think is it’s kind of bad. And I think we saw some of that in the spring game.”

Regardless of who starts at center, Georgia will enter the year as the No. 1 team in the nation, according to the preseason AP Top 25. The Bulldogs begin their quest for a three-peat Sept. 2 against UT-Martin.