Kirby Smart shares what has stood out about Carson Beck this spring

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart sang high praise for quarterback Carson Beck, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound native of Jacksonville, Florida that spent the majority of last season on the bench behind both JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett IV.

Beck is now entering his redshirt sophomore season with the Georgia Bulldogs, and after enrolling early during the 2020 season, Beck — who played in garbage-time minutes of one game during that true freshman season — actually got some playing meaningful playing time early in the 2021 season, with Georgia’s top quarterback options dealing with injuries. Now, Smart is praising Beck, not just for an impressive performance during spring practices, but also for his composure.

“I think he has really good composure. Carson is never up, never down. I think that’s a great quality on a quarterback,” Smart said in Georgia’s spring media availability. “I’ve seen guys that are emotional and an up-and-down rollercoaster, and he’s pretty even-keeled. To be honest, most of our quarterbacks are. There’s no guy out there that loses it one way or the other, but he does a good job getting very even-keeled, and I think he understands the system. Another year in the system. So, it comes natural to him.”

Last year, in Georgia’s national championship campaign, Beck appeared in four games — granted, for not all that much playing time — and logged 10 completions in 23 attempts, along with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Though Bennett figures to reclaim the starting quarterback role at Georgia, Beck will still be a viable option, should Smart ever need. Even if he’s thrown under center in some tough circumstances, Smart trusts Beck’s ability and his demeanor.

“He’s not nervous about what the huddle call is, what’s my read, what’s the motion, what’s the shift. He’s very cool, calm and collected,” Smart said. “He does a good job managing those things with the offense, so he’s earned some confidence and earned some confidence with the players.”

Coming out of high school, Beck was a heavily-recruited quarterback at Mandarin High School, originally commmitting to Georgia back in 2019 as a four-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was tabbed the No. 16-ranked quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class, as well as the No. 35-overall recruit in the state of Florida.