DALLAS — Kirby Smart knows better than anyone how close Carson Beck is to greatness, so he’s been banging the drum for improvement.
The Georgia head coach has requested the talented Beck become more “Assertive,” and on Tuesday he explained exactly what he means by that.
“The biggest thing he can do is maybe start to affect younger players, and how he studies how he manages the defense and helps them in times of need,” Smart said, “because he’s got to take it to another level to take us where we want to go.”
Smart appreciates Beck’s poise and calm as much as anyone, but the head coach also wants to see Beck allow the competitive fire that burns from within ignite players around him at opportune times.
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“We’ve talked about it with him, showing emotion and getting excited for the players,” Smart said. “He’s such a calm, cool, collected guy, his composure within the game is incredible, but (Mike) Bobo makes the point that he needs to seem him run down there and celebrate with that guy ... embrace those guys, and he’s taken that and embraced it in the spring,” he said.
“They need to see that fire in him sometimes, too, and I love that about him.”
Beck is 13-1 as a starter, but that loss — a 27-24 defeat to Alabama in the 2023 SEC Championship Game — is an example of what Smart is looking for from his quarterback.
“He just needs to continue to do what he did last year, and that’s continue to get better every week,” said Jim Nagy, the Senior Bowl executive director and former Super Bowl-winning NFL scout.
“And if there’s situations this year where Carson has to really put the team on his back, you’d love to see him do it.”
WATCH: Carson Beck shares how he learned how to control his competitive fire
Beck not only embraced the pressure that comes with being …
• a Heisman Trophy favorite
• a projected No. 1 overall pick
• the nation’s leading returning passer, and,
• starting QB on the preseason No. 1-ranked team
Beck’s newest tattoo says it all: “Sky’s the limit.”
It means just what is says, and it’s Beck’s way of saying that for all the expectations, even more is possible.
“It’s self-explanatory …. as far as progressing and getting to where I want to be, there’s no limit,” said Beck, one of the three players representing Georgia at the annual SEC Media Day event.
“So if you shoot for the sky, there’s no ceiling. I feel like that’s kind of how I try to approach my game and myself as a person.”
It wasn’t always that way for Beck, a once-highly touted recruit who sat in reserve for three seasons before knocking the rust off in 2023 with a 13-1 season.
Smart relishes telling Beck’s story, as it’s the sort that has become rare in this new era of NIL inducements that lead to players exercising their right for limitless transfers.
“It’s such a great story that I don’t think people follow and write about it enough in today’s day and age,” Smart said. “He was going to be the next great quarterback, he was about to get his opportunity, and this little unknown (Stetson Bennett) jumps in front of him and stays two years in front of him.”
Beck has reflected that he didn’t think he was ready for the moment in 2021 when JT Daniels’ upper-body injuries opened the door for a new starting quarterback
Smart has insisted Beck may have been able to lead Georgia to back-to-back titles, too, but his bigger takeaway is the value that came out of his development.
“He showed resiliency, I mean, he’s probably capitalized more on the NIL portion of college football than anybody,” said Smart, whose program negotiated a deal for Beck to stay in mid-December.
“That’s kind of unique; everybody else capitalizes by going in the portal and getting more, (but) this guy chose to tay and got more because he got better and he won the job.”
And now Beck is focused on the bigger team picture, more so than his potential individual exploits.
“I like to put my focus on the team around me and focus on what’s actually important …. " Beck said.
“You focus on the team as a whole, it kid of takes all that outside noise and pressure of these individual awards and individual statistics, and it puts it on, ‘OK, let’s win this week and let’s win next week and so on, so forth.”
The sky really is the limit.
CARSON BECK 4-PART SERIES
• Beck shares how UGA moves on without Brock Bowers
• Beck on Heisman Trophy, why it’s a team award
