Kirby Smart honest on development of Carson Beck ahead of SEC Championship Game

Kirby Smart was honest about Georgia quarterback Carson Beck’s development throughout the season and now the latter faces his biggest test.

Beck will start his first SEC Championship Game with it all on the line. A win and the Bulldogs are going back to the College Football Playoff. A loss and Georgia could be out entirely despite being No. 1 overall.

How does Beck maintain his excellence? It’s simple according to Smart.

“Keep doing what he’s done,” Smart said on College GameDay. “You know, hopefully he has some guys to help him out there, more guys healthy, but I don’t know if that’s gonna happen or not. So it could look just like Georgia Tech. It could look a little different depending on how the warm ups go.

“I’ll say this. He’s gotten better with each game. He’s gotten better at each moment, he continues to grow. He’s a guy we rely on, we put a lot of pressure on Carson to make decisions and he’s done a good job of that.”

Carson Beck only getting better?

Beck had a resurgent year, albeit his first as a starter. It wasn’t smooth sailing, but Beck at one point got Heisman buzz this year.

This season, Beck has 3,495 yards, 22 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 72.4% completion percentage.

If the offensive game plan continues at that rate, it could be a great day against Alabama.

“Well, we keep it simple,” Smart said. “We don’t do a lot different for this game than we do for other games because if you treat this game different than other games, it probably brings up some anxiety. We’ve told them that we have a routine, we believe in that routine. Nobody’s got to be Superman. 

“There’s probably going to be more momentum changes in this game. Look at the game last night a lot of momentum swings. Every time we play Alabama a lot of momentum swings. You got to hang on to those, you got to come out of them and you got to have more in your favor than you don’t.”

As a member of the Class of 2020, Beck was a four-star recruit out of Jacksonville (Fla.) Mandarin, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 34 overall prospect in the state, the No. 16 quarterback in the class and the No. 224 overall prospect in the class.