Kirby Smart discusses Carson Beck’s comfort level in Georgia offense

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart named Carson Beck as the team’s starting quarterback on Saturday as the Bulldogs have reached the home stretch of fall camp.

It’s no secret that Beck was the eldest in Georgia’s quarterback room and the front-runner to win the job as a result of his experience, but Smart recently detailed how Beck’s knowledge and level of comfort in the team’s offense was able to put him a step ahead.

“That’s the greatest separator of he and the other two quarterbacks is his comfort level with the offense, and when you have the extra spring, an extra fall that those two guys don’t have that rep volume is kind of the separator,” Smart explained. “I mean he’s had an ability to understand a little bit when the defense is doing this and we’re in this I need an answer, and he’s had the answers.”

Beck is currently entering his fourth year with the Bulldogs, fresh off of a 2022 season where he appeared in seven games and completed 26 of 35 passes for 310 yards and four touchdowns.

His experience dwarfs that of Brock Vandagriff and Gunnar Stockton, who are entering their redshirt sophomore and freshman seasons. But Smart still gave them recognition for their ability to perform versus the Bulldogs’ prolific defense.

“But the two young ones have done a great job, they both made really good checks today when they saw things. And you know, it’s a little hard to judge when going against a defense that does everything,” Smart said. “We have a lot of volume on our defense, and we throw it at them. And we have a lot of volume on our offense and we throw it at them.”

Georgia’s defense has ranked top two in the nation in the past two seasons on their way to back-to-back national championship wins, constantly giving quarterbacks headaches for two straight years.

But Beck’s ability to stand toe to toe against that unit and perform utilizing the Bulldog’s entire playbook gives Smart confidence in him moving forward, as he gave his new starter high praise with the season right around the corner.

“So it’s challenge, and Carson can handle that really well. When you get down to a game plan week and you say we’re only going to take this 65% of our offense and a defense only does so much, you’re not asking those quarterbacks to make as many decisions,” Smart explained. “But Carson is very knowledgeable, very intelligent, one of the smartest quarterbacks I’ve been around when it comes to being able to handle the volume of offense we do combined with the defense we throw at him.”