Kirby Smart: Carson Beck doesn't have 'much to prove' in Top 10 battle vs Ole Miss

Georgia is on the hunt for a third-straight national championship on the football field, but Kirby Smart and Co. are doing it with a different cast of characters. That includes quarterback Carson Beck, who took over the starting role in 2023.

But now three quarters of the way through his debut season as the starter, Smart isn’t evaluating his quarterback through the lens of whether or not he’s proven commodity. He knows what he’s getting from under center at this point, even going into a massive home game against a Top 10-ranked Ole Miss team.

“We’re going to find out a lot because we’re playing a really good opponent. I don’t think Carson has much to prove any more. Carson’s a really good football player. His play has spoke for itself. He’s calm, cool, composed. He’s been that way since he got here. So, I’m not saying it’s easy for him. But he understands what our offensive coordinator, what our offensive staff’s trying to do with him, he handles that really well,” Smart said on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday.

In nine games in 2023, all wins, Beck has completed 72.2% of his passes for 2716 yards and 16 touchdowns to just four interceptions. And in his last two games, he’s thrown four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Even without star tight end Brock Bowers in recent weeks, Beck has stayed on course and keyed in the Bulldogs offense.

While Smart won’t be worried about what he gets from his quarterback on Saturday, he is curious to see how his team performs in arguably the biggest game to date for the Bulldogs.

“And this team’s been really resilient. They have a lot of pressure on them, a lot of everybody talking about the three-peat and all this stuff. All they’ve done is focus on one game at a time and that’s the only thing that’s put us in the situation we’re in,” Smart said.

Bowers is inching closer to getting back for Georgia

Off the back of last week’s win against Missouri, the Bulldogs are looking to get even stronger on the field with the potential return of Bowers.

Tight rope ankle surgery was required for Bowers, potentially giving him the opportunity to play another game this season. Smart explained the recovery process for the star tight end, talking about the “markers” he must hit before getting back on the field. It’s about tracking on the GPS when it comes to accelerating and decelerating well on the injured ankle.

“Well, I think there are a lot of markers he’s got to hit,” Smart said during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference. “There’s more than just the marker of sheer speed. One of the first things we look at on this injury is acceleration and deceleration. Not GPS speed. So, when your decel numbers and acceleration numbers get closer to what your norm is, because we have a baseline on all these guys, you feel much more comfortable about it.

“But you have to get to that point. Straight-line speed is not football, unfortunately… He’s working toward that and I’ve never seen a person work as hard as he’s worked to try to create an opportunity for himself.”