Why Carson Beck is under 'enormous' pressure at Georgia in 2023

The pressure isn’t unique to Carson Beck among his Georgia teammates, it’s just the nature of the game when a program is chasing a three-peat. But according to On3’s J.D. PicKell, there’s an added element of pressure on Beck, the presumed 2023 starter, to keep Georgia’s offense moving.

PicKell doesn’t think the pressure is formed from what the coaching staff will ask Beck to do, as Georgia has oodles of talent around him to make his job easier. The pressure instead comes from the fact that Beck is the biggest change from a year ago, when Stetson Bennett was the quarterback. If there are shortcomings, he’ll be near the top of the list for apportioning blame.

“Man I think it’s enormous pressure, I really do. Any time you’re the quarterback for the back-to-back national champs and you take over for a guy that was the GOAT in Athens — Kirby Smart’s words, not mine — there’s going to be pressure. So, is there pressure? Absolutely,” PicKell said. “I don’t think there’s the pressure in the sense that they’re going to ask it to be all on him. Like if Georgia lost, let’s say, 80 percent of the defense and they didn’t have Brock Bowers coming back, maybe there’s more pressure for Carson Beck to perform, but he’s going to trot out there. It’s going to be a pretty manageable schedule. He’s going to have a lot of great players around him.”

The talent around Beck, plus Georgia having a relatively light schedule has PicKell confident that things should be alright in Athens.

But he noted that Beck won’t be spared the criticism if Georgia isn’t again in the College Football Playoff. They just won’t be relying on him to carry the Bulldogs there in the first place.

If he can play his part in the greater composition of Georgia’s football program this fall, Beck should give Georgia every chance to be back atop the sport. And that’s always going to be a pressure-packed endeavor.

“He still has pressure to do his job and don’t get it twisted, if they don’t achieve the ultimate goal of winning a third national title in a row, there will be some heat that comes his way by nature of being the quarterback,” PicKell said. “The pressure’s real, but I don’t think it’s going to be a thing where ‘Hey Carson Beck, we’re going to get on your back, lead us to the promised land.'”