Kirby Smart provides insight, timetable on Georgia's QB1 battle ahead of spring game

In 2023, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs want to create history by winning a third straight national championship. However, to do that, Smart is going to need to find a replacement for Stetson Bennett at quarterback.

Smart explained that while all the quarterbacks are great, he needs more time to make the most well-informed decision he possibly can.

“They all are really good things,” Kirby Smart told 680 the Fan.

“All three of them are really good leaders. All three of them are really good quarterbacks and the beauty is we get more time to process information. Do you make a decision on an investment when you’re 25% done looking at it? No. I make a decision when I’m 100% through looking at it, and we’re about 25% of the practices we would get before we kick off next year.”

Right now, Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, and Gunner Stockton are all competing to replace Stetson Bennett. Despite the high-profile competition between them, Kirby Smart insisted that it’s a healthy competition, but there really isn’t anything to know about it at this point.

“There’s nothing to really say on the quarterbacks. Any question you want to ask on the quarterbacks, I think all three of those guys have done a tremendous job,” Kirby Smart insisted.

“There’s nothing to be run from in terms of that…they work hard. They compete. I mean, they compete in everything they do and they pull for, like when the offense is out there trying to score in two minutes regardless of who’s in, they’re trying to hope we score because they want the offense to do well. We have third down competition, they want to do well in the third down competition.”

Kirby Smart insisted that the quarterbacks need more time

If one thing is clear about the Georgia quarterback competition, it’s that Kirby Smart doesn’t want to make a decision until he’s had more time to see these three compete.

“Less boneheadedness today than previous. [In] the second scrimmage, there were moments where it was like, ‘Okay. At this point, concede the down. Live for another down’. If that happens to be third down? That’s okay. You can punt, you can kick a field goal, you can go for it on fourth. But you can’t if you have boneheadedness. They seem to grasp that better,” Smart said.

“But they all need to play. They all need to play football. Go out and play football. Not have a drill, not routes on air, not 7-on-7. They need to play and that’s what we’re trying to do in our practices is make sure we get enough ‘playing.’ Playing is third down. There’s no greater pressure on a quarterback than on third down…That’s where you make the separation. We’re trying to put those guys in that situation so we can improve them.”