ATHENS — Kirby Smart is like any other head coach when it comes to preferring an experienced quarterback under center.
Experience, more than anything else, is why Smart said he chose Carson Beck to start Georgia’s opening game against UT-Martin.
“That’s the greatest separator in the quarterbacks, it’s the comfort level with the offense and having the extra spring, and extra fall that those two guys don’t have,” Smart said last Saturday.
“That rep volume is kind of the separator. He’s had the ability to understand when the defense is doing this, or they’re in this, I need the answer. He’s had good answers. But the two young ones have done a good job. They made really good checks today (Saturday) when they saw things.”
Smart announced Beck would be the starter following the team’s second scrimmage, but he also said he had told the quarterbacks earlier in the week that Beck would be the starter.
The start against UT-Martin will be Beck’s first career start.
But when it comes to career snap count and quality game snaps, the fourth-year junior’s experience far exceeds what Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton have under their respective belts:
• Carson Beck: 163 snaps, 58 pass attempts
• Brock Vandagriff: 21 snaps, 0 pass attempts
• Gunner Stockton: 0 snaps, 0 pass attempts
Taking the experience into consideration, most assumed it was a foregone conclusion Beck would be the starter.
Breaking it down further:
Beck had 89 snaps in seven games last season, while Vandagriff had 11 snaps in 3 games.
Beck was 26-of-35 passing for 310 yards with 4 TD passes, and he rushed 7 times for 43 yards including a long run of 20 yards.
Vandagriff has yet to throw a pass in a collegiate game, his only contribution to the boxscore a 7-yard run against FCS Samford in 2022.
The season before, in 2021, Beck had 74 snaps in 4 games while Vandagriff had just 10 snaps in 2 games.
Beck was 10-of-23 passing for 176 yards with 2 TD passes and 2 interceptions — including a Pick 6 against UAB — his redshirt freshman season.
As noted, Stockton, entering his second season in the program, has yet to take a snap in collegiate game action.
Smart has talked a great deal about the challenges the Georgia defense can throw at the quarterbacks in preparing them for game action.
“We have a lot of volume on our defense and we throw it at them,” Smart said. “We have a lot of volume on our offense and we throw it at them.
“It’s challenging, and Carson can handle that really well.”
Indeed, Smart said at the start of fall camp that, “The guy that does that best in critical situations will be the guy that becomes the quarterback.”
And yet, Smart said in his private meeting with the Georgia beat writers that game action does factor in.
“Absolutely it matters; it’s the No. 1 measure we have,” Smart said in Nashville. “But it’s the one thing we can’t measure (in practice) because we don’t tackle the quarterback. In the game they get tackled.
“So, Brock has very limited game action. We didn’t give Brock an opportunity to open and do things in games. Carson, we loosened up and did more things so we’ve got more measurement there. Gunner didn’t get any. The closest thing these guys have to game action is the spring.”
Smart didn’t commit to playing more than one quarterback in the opening game, but he said both Vandagriff and Stockton would get work with the Ones leading up to the opening game.
Fans can and will decide for themselves what that means as far as how settled the quarterback position is, but Smart’s answer would likely be “as settled as any other position on the team.”
Time will tell.
