georgia football quarterback future carson beck brock vandagriff

Safe to say no one saw Stetson Bennett being the one to lead Georgia to its first National Championship since 1980 last season. The Bulldogs brought back JT Daniels, who had not lost a game as a starting quarterback at Georgia. Add in Carson Beck winning the No. 2 quarterback job last spring and the arrival of 5-star freshman Brock Vandagriff and Bennett once again seemed like he would be buried on the depth chart.

Yet when Daniels suffered an early-season injury, it was Bennett who stepped in as the starter. When Daniels picked up another injury against Vanderbilt, Bennett once again stepped in and led the Georgia offense. Bennett threw for 29 touchdowns to just seven interceptions last season while completing 64 percent of his passes. Bennett was far from perfect against Alabama, but he completed his final four passes of the national championship game, with two of them going for touchdowns.

Daniels elected to enter the transfer portal following the 2021 season, with Oregon State recently emerging as a possible contender for his services. But Bennett returns for his sixth season of eligibility. Beck and Vandagriff seem poised to battle for back-up job this spring while also pushing Bennett. Georgia also added 4-star early enrollee Gunner Stockton to the mix as well.

Even with all the tumult, the quarterback position saw in 2021, Georgia is still set up for success at the position going forward. So much so that in ESPN’s power rankings of future quarterback situations, Georgia came in at No. 5.

“Georgia’s quarterback outlook is always fascinating, even after a national title and with a returning starter in Bennett,” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg wrote. “Coach Kirby Smart’s program is less quarterback-reliant than others, but Bennett stepped up in the playoff when his team needed him in the fourth quarter against Alabama. Bennett should have a victory lap type of season this fall, after passing for 2,862 yards with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He will be working under coordinator Todd Monken again, and has the confidence and respect of the Georgia locker room.”

Bennett, like all on the Georgia 2022 team, will be asked to do more following some of the departures Georgia saw from last season’s championship team. The offense will need to be better given all the defensive talent that is headed to the NFL.

Bennett and the quarterbacks won’t have George Pickens or Jermaine Burton to target, as the latter is now at Alabama and the former is in the NFL draft. Brock Bowers is out this spring due to injury, but he is one of the top pass catchers in the country and coming off a stellar freshman season. Georgia will look to get more contributions from previously injured wide receivers such as Kearis Jackson, Dominick Blaylock and Arian Smith as well.

Beck and Vandagriff’s duel for the back-up quarterback spot figures to be one of the more fascinating subplots entering spring practice. Beck has a year of experience on Vandagriff and has seen the field more than the redshirt freshman Vandagriff. But Vandagriff is the better athlete and might have the highest ceiling of anyone in the quarterback room. Vandagriff also got far more reps last season while working as the scout team quarterback.

This season will be Bennett’s last as a Bulldog, meaning the winner of Beck-Vandagriff likely has an inside track on replacing him as the starter going forward. Stockton could be a factor in the future, but he is not expected to do much this season as he makes the adjustment to big-time college football.

Georgia does not have a commitment from a high school quarterback at the moment, though the Bulldogs are heavily involved in the pursuit of 5-star quarterback Arch Manning. He is the No. 1 overall player in the 2023 recruiting cycle and he did visit a Georgia game last fall. The Bulldogs are competing with Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas in the hopes of landing Manning.

The Bulldogs begin spring practice on Tuesday, the first of 15 allotted practices this spring. The final practice is scheduled for April 16, which doubles as the annual G-Day scrimmage. That will give the general public their first real shot at comparing how Beck and Vandagriff match-up and how far they need to go in order to push Bennett as the starter.

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