Don’t fall for it.

When someone tells you that Carson Beck or Brock Vandagriff is making a legitimate push for Georgia’s starting quarterback job and that Kirby Smart isn’t sold on Stetson Bennett as his QB1, just nod politely. It’s not worth getting into an argument, even though the person telling you that is wrong.

If someone tells you that Vandagriff and Beck are getting reps with the first-teamers and look promising, you might have the urge to make a snarky comment like, “oh, did Beck or Vandagriff end the 1980 jokes?” Don’t fall for it, though. You’re just wasting your time — and maybe losing a friend — with a response like that.

Again, just nod politely. It’s the equivalent of an “OK, buddy.”

Smart can say whatever he wants. He can give Beck and Vandagriff as many reps with the first-teamers as he wants (Todd Monken likes doing that in the spring with the younger quarterbacks). But barring an injury or an off-field issue, nothing is getting in the way of Bennett being QB1 to start 2022.

Wait, but what about this interesting comment from Smart that came at the start of spring football?

“We have high expectations for Stetson,” Smart said (via DawgNation), “but we also have high standards for what we expect Stetson to do in terms of leading our offense, going to class, and doing the right thing.

“We are still challenging him to do those things.”

As Mike Griffith of DawgNation pointed out, yes, that is an eyebrow-raising comment to make about a 24-year-old, 6th-year senior. It was also somewhat eyebrow-raising to see Bennett discuss his conversations about returning to Georgia instead of riding off into the sunset after winning Georgia’s first national title in 41 years.

“There was a bunch of private conversations that we won’t go into, but it was more so just, you know, how we’re going to do this year,” Bennett said (via DawgNation). “I wanted to hear what coach Smart had to do. I just wanted to know, you know, for me as it was time for me to be a little selfish while I was making that decision. And then now, I’m all aboard.

“So I wanted to hear a few things, and he told me — some of them were what I wanted, some weren’t. They were closed-door conversations, but in the end, I thought that for me I wanted to come back and play football at the University of Georgia.”

Ah, let’s dig into that.

Smart told Bennett some things he didn’t want to hear. If I were reading between the lines, I’d assume that Bennett means Smart didn’t exactly prop him up and tell him that they’d rather have him than JT Daniels. In Smart’s defense, he would’ve been sitting pretty with either one returning.

Now, Daniels is gone. The guy that Bennett overtook for the starting job after it was Daniels who represented Georgia at SEC Media Days as the unquestioned starter is gone. Bennett is being asked to lead in a way that he hasn’t so far, yet he’s still getting the tough love treatment from Smart.

Hmmmmm. Where have we seen that before? Oh, that’s right. We saw it with Georgia up 27-3 in the Orange Bowl when Bennett didn’t show enough urgency to put Georgia in position to attempt a long field goal before halftime.

Let’s also remember what’s at stake with Beck and Vandagriff. Keeping both on Georgia’s 2022 opening day roster would be a massive win for Smart. Vandagriff is entering Year 2 and Beck is a Year 3 guy who was expected to be Daniels’ backup in 2021. Then, of course, Bennett happened. Again. In consecutive years, Smart turned to Bennett over Beck. It’s hard to imagine any scenario that would change that ahead of the season opener.

Smart won’t come out and admit this, but he’s trying to hold that quarterback room together and make sure he doesn’t lose another signal-caller ahead of the May 1 deadline to enter the transfer portal. Duh. He’d be foolish not to do that. This isn’t the time of year to lay out a clear hierarchy with his quarterback depth chart. Frankly, he doesn’t have to.

Shoot, Smart wouldn’t even declare Jake Fromm was his starter just after he led Georgia to its first national championship berth since the Herschel Walker era. We shouldn’t be surprised that Smart came into a post-national title spring talking about “challenging” Bennett. We shouldn’t even be surprised if Smart added a transfer quarterback this offseason.

Of course, that could also be the byproduct of a potential Beck/Vandagriff exit. That’s only a conversation because of last year’s change of the transfer rules to allow undergraduates a 1-time exemption to play immediately at another school.

Depending on whom you ask, Vandagriff might be seen as the biggest loss in that quarterback room if he were to transfer. By seeing him get first-team reps and leaving the possibility open for him to be the starter, it perhaps decreases the likelihood of him transferring. His skill set is super intriguing in Monken’s offense, and not just because he’s a former 5-star guy. The mobility, the arm, the toughness … there’s a lot to like and there’s certainly enough to think he can be an All-SEC quarterback when his time comes. There would be understandable angst if Smart were to lose yet another former 5-star quarterback.

But there’s nothing Vandagriff can do that’ll erase Bennett’s 2021. The only thing Vandagriff can do is maximize his opportunities and put pressure on the coaching staff to call his number if Bennett struggles as the starter in 2022. That’s absolutely possible. At least it should be. To be fair, that’s usually the spot most second-year signal-callers are in. Not everyone is Bryce Young, or Jameis Winston or Johnny Manziel.

None of those guys had to overtake a quarterback returning after winning a national title, either.

Smart is desperate to avoid complacency in all phases, and that approach is evident with Bennett. Georgia is trying to become the first program to repeat since Alabama did it in 2011-12. Of course, Smart was part of that staff as the Tide’s defensive coordinator. This is his first time navigating this situation as a head coach.

He can (and will) push all the buttons he wants. He earned that right.

But if you believe anyone other than Bennett is taking that first snap in Atlanta on Sept. 3, I’ve got 2 words for you.

OK, buddy.