Is Carson Beck primed to bring UGA its third championship in four years?

ATHENS, Ga. — The last time Georgia opened the season against Clemson three years ago, Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck could only watch from the sideline as transfer JT Daniels guided the team to a 10-3 victory over the Tigers.

The next week, when Daniels was sidelined with an oblique injury, Beck thought it might be his turn to lead the offense against UAB. But Beck was outplayed in practice by former walk-on Stetson Bennett, who had returned to Georgia from a junior college.

Bennett threw five touchdown passes in the first half of a 56-7 rout of the Blazers. When Daniels was injured again the following week, Bennett took over the starting job for good and eventually led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.

Beck was hardly anything more than a backup as Georgia ended its 41-year drought without a national title, wondering if his turn would ever come.

“It’s hard to sit here and not play,” Beck told ESPN. “You know, you’re working just as hard as the guys in front of you, and you’re doing the same thing. You’re showing up to practice. You’re doing everything, but you don’t get to go out there on the field on Saturday, which is very challenging.

“You might get a little scrap, tiny little scraps in there. But literally, you’re doing all the same work for no reward, I guess. The way I see it is Saturday is the reward. The game’s the reward. That’s the fun part.”

In an era of college football when backup quarterbacks — and even starters — don’t remain at the same school for four years, Beck knew going somewhere other than Georgia might have dramatically increased his chances of playing time.

“That’s definitely the easy route,” Beck said. “It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card. There’s positives and negatives to each situation. The negative is waiting. The negative is that if I go somewhere else maybe I’m really not going to get pushed the same way that I’m going to get pushed here. I’m not going to get coached the same way that I’m going to get coached here.”

Beck decided to wait his turn with the Bulldogs, and the Jacksonville, Florida, native has been rewarded for his patience.

Heading into Saturday’s opener against No. 14 Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Beck is at the controls of the top-ranked team in the FBS, a leading Heisman Trophy contender and a potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.

He’s driving a Lamborghini, one of the fruits of name, image and likeness deals that reportedly total more than $1 million, and he confirmed to ESPN this week that he’s dating Miami basketball player Hanna Cavinder, a social media star in her own right. His younger sister, Kylie, transferred to Georgia and is a member of the school dance team.

“A lot has changed since 2021,” Beck said. “You know, I’ve been through a lot, personally and through football. Sitting and waiting and not playing, and then getting last season to be able to start. Looking back today and being where I’m at now, I’m very appreciative and very thankful of the position that I’m in.”

In his first season as a starter in 2023, Beck completed 72.4% of his passes for 3,941 yards, which was tops in the SEC. He had 24 touchdown passes and six interceptions while leading the Bulldogs to their third straight unbeaten regular season.

Georgia fell 27-24 to Alabama in the SEC championship game, which ended its 29-game winning streak. The Bulldogs were left out of the College Football Playoff, even though they were arguably one of the top four teams in the FBS.

Beck was considered a potential high draft pick in this past April’s NFL draft (he declined to reveal his grade from NFL evaluators), but opted to return to Georgia for another season.

“I came back to win a national championship,” Beck said. “That’s my goal.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart says he realizes Beck is an anomaly in the transfer portal era. Heading into this season, half of the SEC’s projected starting quarterbacks began their college careers with another team. The number is even higher across the Power 4 — about 63% of projected starting quarterbacks in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and at Notre Dame have transferred at least once.

“You get contacted by schools about leaving and it never became that for him,” Smart told ESPN. “He never used it for leverage or brought anything to us. I think that’s just kind of the way he is. He’s very strong-minded. He wanted to prove a point to himself, and he stuck it out to do it.”

Beck and Kentucky‘s Brock Vandagriff, a former Georgia backup who is set to make his first career start for the Wildcats against Southern Miss on Saturday, are the only quarterbacks at power programs who waited three seasons before making their first starts.

“I think it just shows his competitive character,” Smart said of Beck. “He was hellbent to prove that he could play here. He’s wired differently. I mean, for everybody that was looking for a place to go, I assure you he was probably getting calls or people were calling his high school coach or his quarterback coach back at home.”

As Georgia plays road games at No. 5 Alabama, No. 4 Texas and No. 6 Ole Miss and a home game against No. 15 Tennessee, Beck’s experience will surely come in handy. In 2023, he performed remarkably well against ranked opponents, completing 73.9% of his attempts with 13 touchdowns and two interceptions in five such games.

NFL scouts love Beck’s prototypical size (6-foot-4 and 220 pounds), arm strength and quick release. He’s considered the top quarterback eligible for next year’s draft, along with Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders and Texas’ Quinn Ewers.

Smart said Beck’s biggest improvements during the offseason were recognizing coverages and pressures — he relied on veteran center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger to do it last year — and he has become a more vocal leader.

“Last year, he was kind of tending to himself,” Smart said. “He’s a little better now if something needs to be said at the end of practice or beginning of practice or in a team meeting. He’s a little more assertive, even though that’s not who he is.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo appreciates Beck’s even demeanor as a complement to him being more outspoken.

“The nature of the position and what you play, you’re the leader of the offense and a lot of times the leader of the team,” Bobo said. “His actions and his body language speak volumes to guys. It could be getting on somebody’s ass or it could be encouraging somebody. I just want him to be him.

“He has a great trait that he has such an even temperament, whether we score a touchdown or we go three and out or he happens to throw a pick or something, his temperament doesn’t change. That allows him to stay calm in the moment, and one of our core DNA traits is composure.”

Last season, the Bulldogs ranked second in the SEC in scoring (40.5 points) and passing (305.3 yards) — behind only LSU in both categories. They’ll have to try to duplicate that production without star tight end Brock Bowers and receiver Ladd McConkey, who have moved on to the NFL.

“We have a lot of talent,” Beck said. “And regardless of what we lost, you know, it’s always rebuilt at Georgia. Whatever you lose, we’re going to replace. Those guys obviously are really great athletes and had a lot of production last year. But also at the same time, those two guys really didn’t play much last year.”

Bowers, the only back-to-back winner of the Mackey Award as the best tight end in the FBS, missed two games with a left ankle injury and worked his way back from surgery late in the season. McConkey missed five games with back and foot injuries.

To fill in the gaps, the Bulldogs added tight end Ben Yurosek (Stanford) and receivers Colbie Young (Miami), London Humphreys (Vanderbilt) and Michael Jackson III (USC) from the portal.

“We still had one of the most explosive offenses in the country,” Beck said. “I’m looking forward to this year and seeing some of those guys that stepped up last year really make their mark this year.”

At a meeting during preseason camp, Beck wrote what a quarterback needed to do to be successful on a whiteboard. The No. 1 thing was to “be where your feet are.”

With Heisman Trophy and NFL draft speculation surrounding him, that challenge starts Saturday against Clemson.

“I see a guy that’s trying to have a sense of urgency every day about everything he does and not taking anything for granted,” Bobo said. “You hear that a lot, but here’s a guy that had a good season, his first season. There’s a lot of noise outside this building about the future, but he can’t control that. What he can control is being where his feet are every day.”

That shouldn’t be difficult for a quarterback whose feet never left where they started.