Kirby Smart says Georgia quarterbacks all need more time playing

Stetson Bennett left quite a mantle to pass with the quarterback position at Georgia. Winning two national championships, making two straight SEC championships while winning one, and one finish as a Heisman finalist is a lot to live up to. Kirby Smart knows it too as he says the next Bulldog quarterbacks have a long way to go still.

Smart spoke about the developments of his quarterbacks during his press conference over the weekend. He said that the biggest issue right now is getting them to grow in one certain expression as he wants them to have patience with their downs.

However, that will come once they play more which is the major emphasis down in Athens at the moment.

“Less boneheadedness today than previous,” Smart admitted. “(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.”

“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’,” said Smart. “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.”

Inexperience is the top issue when it comes to Smart’s options at quarterback. Three of them are redshirt underclassmen while Carson Beck and Jackson Muschamp are just juniors who haven’t seen much action thanks to Bennett. Between the five of them, only Beck and Brock Vandagriff have actually thrown passes in college.

Bennett moving on leaves a major hole in the program until one of the members of this quintet steps up.

Still, that allows one of them the opportunity to do so, starting with what they do to impress and earn the job in spring practice. They’ll all just need to continue to gain valuable snap experience and, in Smart’s words, cut down on the ‘boneheadedness’.