Kirby Smart evaluates the state of Georgia's quarterback room for 2023 season

For years, it seemed like Georgia was a quarterback away from being a national championship-caliber team. Finally, the Bulldogs found their quarterback, and two national championships, in Stetson Bennett. Now, head coach Kirby Smart needs to find a new quarterback for the 2023 season.

After Georgia won the national championship, Smart was asked to evaluate the state of the program’s quarterback room for the 2023 season.

“Well, we got some good quarterbacks in there,” Kirby Smart said. “We got one that took a black jersey off and took hits all week so he could be Max [Duggan] and Gunner Stockton said, ‘Coach, take my shirt off. I’ll take the hits.'”

“You know, Brock Vandagriff’s down there learning all year. Carson Beck got a lot of playing time and has a lot of composure to come back and be able to play.”

Carson Beck was Bennett’s backup this season and played in the game against TCU. Though not much was asked of him in that game, he looked good and is expected to be the starter in 2023. However, Kirby Smart made it clear that there will be a quarterback competition.

So, those three guys are going to battle it out and they’ll learn a lot. You know, Coach [Todd] Monken does an unbelievable job in that room.”

From there, Kirby Smart transitioned to praising Stetson Bennett, once again arguing for him to get a look from the NFL.

“He did an unbelievable job with Stetson, and the fact that he’s playing in an NFL offense where there’s an NFL coordinator who coached NFL quarterbacks should tell people that he’s not going to get marbles in his mouth when he’s got to spit out seven-word calls and a lot of NFL teams like that.”

Kirby Smart doesn’t want Georgia’s worth to be built on championships

Over the last two seasons, Georgia has won two national championships. There are those who think a third national championship in a row wouldn’t be surprising and even should be expected. However, Kirby Smart doesn’t want Georgia’s worth to be built on the back of national championships.

“It’s awesome [winning the national championship]. But I don’t want their careers — I don’t want their self-worth or our program’s self-worth to be built on just championships. I get it. I get that’s what you define Joe Montana on, Tom Brady on, LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] and Michael Jordan on — the number of championships,” Smart said.

“I don’t want these young men to be defined by that. I don’t want my career to be defined by that because I know tons of coaches and players out there that didn’t get one that had unbelievable careers. So I never hang a hat or say, you validate. All I want to do is be the best I can be today. And I want these kids to know that they need to be the best they can each and every day so they can be successful. If you measure success based on wins in each day, that’s what I want our success to be measured on.”