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Carson Beck ready to show the importance of persevering with Georgia football: ‘I kept growing’
Carson Beck is something of an anomaly in today’s college football age. It’s rare that a player might wait until their fourth season to become a quarterback, especially at an elite program like Georgia.
Consider that Alabama will be deciding between Jalen Milroe or Ty Simpson, two players who signed after Beck arrived in Georgia as a member of the 2020 signing class. Ditto for Kyle McCord and Devin Brown in Ohio State. Michigan starter JJ McCarthy saw first-team reps as a freshman for the Wolverines and started every game as a sophomore. Caleb Williams was staying with Beck while the current USC quarterback was a recruit visiting Georgia and he has already won the Heisman Trophy.
Beck was in the same high school recruiting class as Anthony Richardson, who lit up the NFL combine last weekend.
Related: Georgia Football Winners and Losers after 2023 NFL Combine
The Georgia quarterback was the 19th prospective quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite Recruiting Ranking. Twelve of the higher-rankers have already switched. Richardson, CJ Stroud and Bryce Young are all going to the NFL. Beck is just one of four players remaining at the school he signed with and the only one who hasn’t started a game.
The first glimpse we really got of Beck came in the 2021 UAB game. JT Daniels was injured and while Stetson Bennett had done enough to beat Beck for the starting job, Georgia still wanted to see what Beck could do .
He completed just four of his 10 tries and threw a pick-six in UAB’s only points in a 56-7 win. He then walked one of three against Vanderbilt and then completed five of 10 passes against Charleston Southern. Also in this game he was intercepted.
With the return of Bennett, as well as Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton on the program, Beck could easily have looked elsewhere after the 2021 season. Given the transfer portal and what Georgia had been through, it wouldn’t have been an understanding decision.
But Beck didn’t want to go through everything that comes with joining a new team. Especially one who would have been less talented than the team he might be leaving.
“That’s definitely something I’ve always kept in the back of my mind,” Beck said. “To be honest, I don’t really want to go from school to school. That’s a lot, changing schools, being on a new team, connecting with a bunch of different guys. I love the guys here and it’s a lot of fun.”
Related: The scout team’s success has Gunner Stockton poised to step in for Georgia to start the quarterback job