Carson Beck confident and comfortable under pressure courtesy of baseball background

ATHENS, Ga. — It’s October, and baseball is on the minds of many in the state of Georgia, so it makes sense why for a second straight week Kirby Smart would bring baseball up in his football press conference. To Smart, the sport is a great test of a person’s ability to handle pressure. If somebody can step on the mound and throw strikes, they’ll probably be able to handle when other situations have all eyes on them and their response.

Last week Smart’s reference of baseball was about Georgia kicker Peyton Woodring. Since the freshman missed a pair of attempts against South Carolina, he’s earned back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Week honors for strong showings in Bulldog victories over Auburn and Kentucky. This week, Smart brought baseball up for quarterback Carson Beck and his ability to handle when defenders are bearing down on him.

“Carson does a great job of that because he is very composed. I think, a baseball background, I’ve learned, gives you the ability to handle pressure,” Smart said on Monday when asked about Beck’s success against the blitz. “There’s no greater pressure than you have to throw a strike. Nobody can help you throw that strike, no coach, no pitching coach. You’ve got to stand out there and throw a strike. That pressure is not the same as a man running in your face, but it is pressure.”

Like Woodring, Beck earned an SEC weekly honor on Monday, being named Co-Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. The Jacksonville, Fla. native threw for a career-high 389 yards and four touchdowns Saturday night in the win over the Wildcats becoming just the third SEC quarterback in the last 10 years to throw for four scores and complete 85% of his passes against the blitz. Making matters even more impressive, he’s the first to do it against an SEC opponent in that span.

Beck, a one-time standout baseball player and commit to play the sport at Florida, agreed with Smart that has baseball background plays a part in his handling of pressure-packed situations. However, he also had credit for the offensive line for helping him out too.

“First and foremost, the offensive line picking up the blitz helps me big time,” Beck said. “Not only that, but then Sedrick and my study of film to see what defenses are going to try to do when they do blitz, making the right ID with mike points and changing protection, all that stuff. So having Sedrick there to help me with that, studying film and then obviously the execution of it to pick up the blitz, huge credit to our offensive line.”

“I’ve been through a lot of things in my life that helped me to the point where I can handle pressure,” he added. “Definitely being a pitcher and playing baseball, you’re the only guy that’s doing anything when you’re up there pitching – baseball’s a little bit more boring of a sport – but you’re the guy. All the weight is on you to sit there and execute whether you’re throwing 80, 90, 100 pitches a game. I definitely can say that could be a credit to the way that I handle pressure.”

Through six games, Beck ranks fourth in the country for passing yards (1,886). He’s ninth nationally in completions (144) and has done all of it with an impressive 73.5% completion percentage, good for sixth in the NCAA among qualifying quarterbacks.

Smart, who made the decision on Beck as the team’s starter back in August, has been more than pleased with the way his quarterback has played. He was confident the results would look something like this then, crediting the success in large part to Beck’s “mental processing” along with his familiarity in the Georgia offensive system.

“I made a quick decision there because I was really confident. We had the luxury of having the quarterback coming back that really wasn’t your typical first-time starter. When you have a guy that’s been in the system as long as he has, I felt comfortable that he knew the system and that I wanted to keep the system the same. And those guys have transitioned well together,” Smart said about the Bobo-Beck coordinator-quarterback combo.

“He’s a great processor. I mean, Carson’s very intelligent, guys. You know, you can say what you want about the quarterback position, but you have to process information rapidly. And the more information you can handle, the more flexibility your offense has,” Smart added. “The flexibility of an offense is usually tied to what the quarterback can handle. Our quarterback — not only because he’s smart but because he’s also of age and been in the same system for multiple years — has been able to grow from that. You find it’s very, very rare in college football or pro football for a quarterback to be in the same system more than three years. I don’t know how many years Carson has been in this system, but I think it’s three or four. So it’s like he understands it, he knows how to use it, and he’s got good weapons around him to help him with it. So his intuition along with ability has helped him.”

Without a doubt though, Beck’s experience has helped. However, he’s also grown through the game reps he’s gotten this season. Only appearing in 13 games before his first career start against UT-Martin back in September, Beck said he’s gained confidence with each outing.

“Obviously the confidence standpoint, that’s the biggest thing. Continuing to move forward, I think I can improve in every area as far as accuracy goes, timing goes, little forward things. And obviously the knowledge of the game and the feel of the game, trying to learn how to play football again,” Beck said. “It was a long time since I had played in a game. The game speed compared to practice, it’s so hard to replicate. Really the only way to replicate it is to play in the game.”

“I have standards and goals for myself, but as far as expectations, I just try to go out there and be myself every single game. I don’t expect to go throw for X amount of yards or X amount of completions. It’s never about the numbers,” he added. “I said this on Saturday, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning. Especially at the quarterback position, that’s a huge thing you put on quarterbacks. How many wins do they have? How many losses do they have? At the end of the day, for our team I just think it matters that we get out with the win.”

Beck and the Bulldogs hit the road this Saturday for an SEC contest at Vanderbilt. Kickoff time from the Music City is set for 12:00 p.m. ET, 11:00 a.m. locally, on CBS.