Kirby Smart, Carson Beck react to come-from-behind win over South Carolina

Through one half of play, it looked like Georgia’s 19-game SEC winning streak might come to an end. The Bulldogs trailed South Carolina 14-3 at the break after a stunning first half of play at Sanford Stadium.

But Kirby Smart’s group battled back to eventually get the 24-14 victory, and his team’s ability to handle adversity stood out. However, he also made sure to point out something else he learned about this year’s group.

“They’ve got resiliency,” Smart told CBS’ Jenny Dell after the game. “they got toughness and they’d better get a lot better.”

Although the first half wasn’t pretty, the second half featured quite the glow-up for the Bulldogs. They totaled 290 yards after the break, including 171 passing yards from quarterback Carson Beck. That, along with some stout defense, allowed UGA to battle back and pull off the come-from behind victory.

Beck knew the offense needed a spark, and that came with a touchdown on a perfectly scripted opening drive. The defense played a key role in keeping the offense ready to go — and Beck said both units always have each other’s back.

“We came out the first drive, came down, scored and then, the defense started making plays,” Beck said. “Two picks there at the end. We feed off of each other. If they’re down, we pick them up. If they’re down, they pick us up. It’s just feeding off each other. It’s football.”

Kirby Smart: Georgia’s ‘one moment at a time’ mentality’ helped the Bulldogs come through vs. South Carolina

One of Kirby Smart’s biggest mantras to his players is to stay in the moment and not get ahead of themselves. After the first half, that was part of his message to his team in the locker room.

Led by Beck, who finished the day with 269 yards on 27-of-35 passing, Smart was more than pleased with how the Bulldogs handled themselves.

“Just that. One moment at a time,” Smart said. “We talk about it all the time. Moments are precious, and there’s a lot of them in the game. If you can just win one at a time, you got a shot. If you let the last one bother you, you’re gonna be in trouble. And this guy didn’t do that. He stood in there, played well, lost the tackle and kept banging the ball in there.”

Saturday’s game also marked another milestone for Beck. It was his first career start against an SEC opponent. It wasn’t easy, especially considering South Carolina’s defense kept things at bay through the first two quarters, but he turned in another solid performance.

The weather also wasn’t favorable, which made it even tougher. But Beck stayed poised and helped lead his team to the big victory.

Obviously, we didn’t start as well as we thought,” Beck said. “The conditions were a little bit weird. We didn’t really get off to a hot start. But we kept our mentality, we stayed composed, we came out in the second half and I thought we really turned it up.”

Beck previously said he felt kind of nervous before his first career start against UT-Martin. It’s safe to say he got rid of those butterflies ahead of his first SEC start.

“I felt good,” Beck said. “I felt comfortable, I felt poised. Just trying to go out there and just be myself. That’s all I gotta do.”