Georgia adopting 'do what it takes' offensive identity around Carson Beck

ATHENS, Ga. — We’re a month into the season for Georgia, and the Bulldogs are still trying to find an exact offensive identity. Dealing with injuries to several key players and a first-time starter at quarterback, it’s taken longer than many expected (or hoped). To Kirby Smart though, that’s okay.

“The offensive identity is do what it takes. That’s what it always comes down to,” Smart said ahead of a top-20 matchup with Kentucky this Saturday. “You’d love to have this defined, we’re going to bully you and run right through you, but nobody really does that. I don’t know anybody that does that. Kentucky did it last week against Florida, but they haven’t done it every single game that way. They’ve done it different ways. If you have one identity, that’s what they’re probably going to try to stop.”

Georgia ranks third in the SEC for both scoring offense (38.6 points per game) and total offense (481.2 yards per game), albeit against some subpar competition. Diving deeper into it, the Dawgs are ninth in rushing but third in passing. Credit that to Carson Beck, who Smart says he doesn’t feel like he’s learned all that much about so far. How is that the case? Well, he felt like he knew a lot about him before he took his first snap as a starter.

“Most quarterbacks start for the first time and you maybe don’t know enough. I felt like I had this relationship where I knew Carson so I don’t feel like I’ve learned a lot. I knew a lot,” Smart said. “He had been in the system. He had played. He had not played in that environment, I’m not trying to exchange experience, but I had been around the kid, he had been in the program, he had been in the offense, I had seen him have good days on third down against our defense, seen him have bad days, seen him make really good decisions with the ball, he’s efficient. I guess the only thing I’ve learned is he does have natural composure, but I already thought that. That’s the way he practices. He doesn’t get flustered very easily.”

Beck’s ability to not get flustered goes hand in hand with what Smart said the offensive identity was: “do what it takes.” If the Bulldogs are able to run the ball at will, great. That takes pressure off of Beck. If it’s the Georgia passing game that has to carry the team on any given day, that’s also okay.

Saturday against Auburn, it was the latter that was true. Georgia rushed for just 107 yards on the day, split 68 in the first half and 39 in the second. No Bulldog back really seemed able to get it going, so pressure was put on Beck. He delivered with 313 yards on 23-of-33 passing including a 236-yard, 16-for-20 second half.

Smart said he felt a sense of calm with his team in the second half. Nobody panicked. Instead, they stayed focused on the task at hand and got the job done.

Asked whether that was because of Beck, the head coach didn’t think so. While the quarterback was absolutely calm, it was the game plan that gave Georgia as much confidence as it had, even without taking its first lead until early in the fourth quarter.

“I did feel a sense of calm, but I don’t know if it came from him. It came from the game plan,” Smart said. “The game plan when you go into a place like that, it’s not easy there. Nobody understands that, I can’t explain it, but I’ve been there at LSU, at Alabama, as a player, as an assistant coach, and it’s hard. It’s just hard. It’s hard on the road in the SEC, and it was hard on Saturday. The composure remained throughout the team, and it was part of the game plan.”

“Going back to us, I think we’ve been up and down in the red area, we’ve been pretty dang good on third down,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of things that we can work on, but as far as whether it’s about the backs or not, we don’t cry about what we don’t have. You figure out what you’ve got, and you figure out what they can do. I’m not going to sit up here and complain about healthy or how many backs we’ve got, that’s not the way we do it. We worry about what we do have, not what we don’t.”

Georgia will put its offensive plan to the test once again on Saturday in a game that’s important for positioning in the SEC East. No. 20 Kentucky comes to town with a 5-0 record and fresh off a win over a previously-ranked Florida squad. Kickoff time at Sanford Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN with the Bulldogs favored by 14.5 points per VegasInsider.