Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff share on Georgia's 'healthy' QB battle

ATHENS, Ga. — Just about everybody in the College Football world has had something to say about the Georgia quarterback battle this spring. Finally, the quarterbacks themselves got their chance to speak. Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff both met with the media on Tuesday after the Bulldogs’ tenth practice of the spring, sharing how they’ve taken the competition to heart and grown through it.

Beck, going into his fourth season with the program, served as the Bulldogs’ backup last year. He got the reps when games got out of hand, completing 26 of his 35 passes for 310 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. Meanwhile, Vandagriff – who has yet to complete a pass in his collegiate career having appeared in just five games, throwing three passes – was the higher rated of the two coming out of high school. A five-star from just down the road in Bogart, Ga., there are plenty that would love to see him win the job. Both are talented in their own ways but only one can start come September.

“Since I’ve been here, it’s been constant competition since my freshman year,” Beck said. “We have a very deep quarterback room and I think we have deep rooms all over the place—wide receiver, tight end, offensive line. That’s how it should be. We’re at the University of Georgia, one of the best programs in the country. Every position has competition. I think that brings the best out of all of us.”

His competitor agrees. While they’ve been splitting first-team reps according to head coach Kirby Smart, Vandagriff is viewed as the underdog – at least publicly. Even if it is true, you won’t see him backing down.

“It’s just what you come here to do,” Vandagriff said. “I mean, you come to UGA for competition. I knew that coming in. Coach Smart, he’s going to put the best guy out there. He’s going to give the best guy that gives Georgia the best chance to win, he’s going to be out there. It’s just being in this competition, it’s a blessing and I feel like I’m going to be a better player for it regardless of the outcome.”

While it’d be easy for the quarterbacks to be looking over their shoulder to see how the other guys – including redshirt freshman Gunner Stockton – are doing, both said that’s not the culture of the room. They say that they’re trying to help each other out, creating a healthy competition.

“I think Brock has taken a big step as far as his mental aspect of the game. He asks lots of questions, he’s very in tune, and we’ve always been like that. He asks me questions, I ask him questions, we kind of bounce back and forth off each other on different plays, or different reads, what would we do in this, what would we do on that,” Beck said. “With Gunner it’s the same thing. He’s still the young guy in the building, but just trying to learn off each other, and constantly going in circles and trying to learn from each other, ‘What would you do here?’ and ‘What would you do there?’”

“If you have a dude that’s one of the best in the nation or whatever and then you have a couple of lesser opponents, that guy’s not going to get pushed every day in practice. We have three or four dudes that are biting at the nip every time they’re out there,” Vandagriff added. “It’s just a really healthy competition because everybody’s pushing the others to be great, and then you can turn around in the meeting rooms and say, ‘Hey, I think you could of done this better,’ or ‘What’d you see on this play?’ It’s a good environment, and I’m glad to be here.”

In the end, both have things that they want to show Georgia’s coaches and their teammates by the time spring is over. Whether it will be enough for Kirby Smart, Mike Bobo and company to decide on a starter, that remains to be seen, but the quarterbacks certainly are going to do everything they can to show that they’re the man for the job.

“At the end of spring I’d like the coaches and my teammates to see, like ‘Hey, this guy is going to go to war for us, he’s going to go to battle for us,'” Vandagriff shared as he wrapped up his time with the media. “Hopefully the coaches can think this is one of the guys that we can trust, and that trust will be built and that this is a guy that will be consistent.”

“Just that I can lead, and that I care. I care about this place and I care about this program, and I care about my teammates, and just show that I can cook. That I can get it done,” Beck said in the same situation. “Really at the end of the day I’m going to go out there and be myself and that’s the least that I can do, is lead and compete and have fun.”