Kirby Smart reveals his message to Carson Beck as he goes through struggles

Not even three months ago, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck was a candidate for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He was coming off an impressive fourth year with the Bulldogs, during which he threw for nearly 4,000 yards while completing 72.4% of his passes and posting a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 24:6.

But Beck lost a pair of top receivers to this year’s NFL Draft — tight end Brock Bowers and wideout Ladd McConkey — and his own draft stock has taken a hit. With it, the Georgia offense has regressed as well.

In addition to his completion percentage dropping to 65.4%, Beck has thrown 12 interceptions in nine games. He’s had three separate outings with three picks, including two in the last three games. His first such performance took place at Alabama in Week 5 when his Bulldogs fell into a 30-7 hole before their furious second-half comeback fell just short.

Georgia suffered its second loss this past weekend, this one much more decisive. Although Beck was intercepted only once, he was sacked five times and tallied a mere 186 passing yards in a 28-10 road defeat to Ole Miss.

Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart was asked Monday how he determines what his quarterback, in this case Beck, needs to hear when he’s going through adversity.

“There’s need to hear and then there’s need to reaffirm what’s true,” Smart said. “What’s the actual truth? Because we don’t deal in narratives and themes and what people say and social media fodder and what you guys think. We deal in truths.

“… Like, that’s a good decision, that’s a poor decision, that’s a good drop, that’s a bad drop, that’s a good protection of the ball — if you’re gonna take a sack — that’s a poor protection of the ball. We deal in truths, and we don’t go much past that.”

Smart was also asked if Georgia has another option at quarterback he’d consider, even temporarily in-game.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “We got the quarterback we’ve got who’s completely competent, capable and understanding of our system and gives us the best chance to win.”

Granted Beck’s turnovers have caused the Bulldogs’ offense headaches, but the unit has also been held back by its inconsistency in the run game.

Georgia has rushed for fewer than 110 yards in four games this season. It’s failed to reach the century mark on the ground in both of its losses: The Bulldogs had 80 rushing yards at Alabama and just 59 at Ole Miss.

“We’ve played really good defenses,” Smart said. “So you guys will look at a stat sheet, and you’ll say where do they rank? And I’ll say, well, against who, because relative to who we’ve played, we’ve played some really good teams.

‘But I would be remiss if I would say that we’re happy with where we are. We’re not happy with where we are. … We want to be more productive. We want to be able to throw the ball vertically down the field. We want to be able to shoot and play-action.”

Smart continued: “Play-action’s set up off of your backs and off your ability to run the ball. In some games, we have been able to run the ball better than others. In some games, we’ve been able to drop back pass better than others. But regardless of those two things, you must protect the ball, and we have not done that.”

Georgia is currently tied for 88th nationally in turnover margin per game (-0.33). The Bulldogs have turned the ball over 15 times, and they’ve taken it away just 12 times.

The turnover margin is a two-way street, Smart emphasized Monday.

So while Beck and the offense has to protect the football better, Smart is asking for more from his defense as well.

Luckily for Beck, he’ll have a chance to right some wrongs this week in a top-15 matchup against Tennessee.