ATHENS — Carson Beck and Kirby Smart are in agreement on the biggest issue facing the Georgia quarterback right now.
On Saturday, Beck said his in-game decision-making has to improve. Of his 11 interceptions this season, five have come on first down. He knows must do a better job of throwing the ball away.
To emphasize that point, Smart stressed that Beck could not continue to make “catastrophic” plays.
“I think the concern is the mistakes can’t be catastrophic,” Smart said on Monday. “You’ve got to make good decisions. And the two plays that he ends up turning the ball over on, they weren’t great looks defensively against that call, like we were expecting something else. So when that happens, you’ve got to play for the next down, right? It’s the most common thing in football. You’ve got to be willing to concede a down and move on, especially when it’s first down.
“But I still think that 68 out of 73 decision-making processes, he did the right thing and made some really, really elite plays and throws within the game. So it’s cutting down on the catastrophic things.”
Making 68 of your 73 corner threes in basketball would be great. Your parachute opening on 68 out of 73 skydive jumps would not. And when the interceptions are as harmful as Beck’s were on Saturday, it makes a game that shouldn’t be close competitive.
With games against No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 7 Tennessee on the horizon, continued mistakes will turn those games into losses.
“There’s a quality now that when you look across the NFL, you look across all sports, you look across the quarterback position, resiliency is a huge trait,” Smart said in defense of his quarterback. “And the one thing that this guy has done is when he’s had to, he’s gone out with his back against the wall and made some throws. He’s overcome some bad throws earlier in the game. But I think he continues to show that. I think that’s a good thing.”
Beck and Georgia did outscore Florida 28-7 in the second half. And Smart was quick to say on Saturday that it wasn’t all on Beck. The Georgia head coach called out the wide receiver group for a lack of execution.
As for how Georgia can improve in that regard, Smart had an answer.
“Same as we’ve done every week, practice it. I mean, put it on tape,” Smart said. “That’s what we do. We practice it each week. We do it with crowd noise. We do it with different ways to communicate, and it doesn’t take but one. You can do 52 of those right, and you do one wrong, and the one wrong is the one that people talk about. So you just gotta do it right all the time.”
The team knows Beck is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment. There have been comments made about how much Beck trusts those around him, especially with Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey starring on Sundays now.
But teammates still believe in Beck and know the Georgia quarterback is capable of not turning the ball over at an alarming rate.
“I know it’s probably a lot of stuff going through his head. At the moment, as you say, of course, he was frustrated,” Dillon Bell said on Saturday. “You know, you gotta keep him positive, you know, because you don’t want to throw an extra ball. You don’t want your quarterback to be down, especially in a big, tight game.
Saturday’s game against Ole Miss certainly qualifies as a big game. Even with wins over Texas and Clemson under its belt, Georgia is far from a lock to make the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss will certainly be a factor in the first rankings, which come out on Tuesday. Ole Miss also leads the SEC in sacks and tackles for loss.
It’s going to take a team effort on Saturday. And Beck needs to do his part, even if more is on his shoulders at the moment.
“It’s the whole entire team. We got full support behind Carson,” tight end Ben Yurosek said. “We trust him. We know the way he prepares, the way he practices, and we have full support behind him, not one moment of disbelief with our quarterback.”
