Just as the SEC coaches media teleconference got started, news of the Georgia-Missouri game being called off reached Georgia coach Kirby Smart. Coming off a big loss against Florida, the Bulldogs wanted to get back on the field, but that won’t happen this week.

How has Georgia avoided COVID-19 issues?

“We’ve been fortunate… a lot of it is out of your control, other than education and precaution,” Smart said. “I think anytime you get beat, you look forward to the next opportunity and that’s where we were at… we have a lot of young guys that didn’t get spring practice and fall camp even… we are young, we have an opportunity to grow (the rest of the week).”

Carson Beck is a quarterback that hasn’t yet been in the mix during Georgia’s ongoing quarterback carousel this season, but Smart has tried to give him as many opportunities, though it has been difficult.

“he has not gotten a ton of reps since the season started, it’s hard to prepare a lot of quarterbacks… it’s tough to prepare more than 2 during the week of the game, you can do that in camp,” Smart said.

Smart was asked for what Beck has been given, you’re happy with the progress that he’s made?

“Well, I would disagree with that because I think all things considered he has not gotten a ton of reps since the season started,” Smart said. “It’s hard to prepare a number of quarterbacks, and you have to prepare the guys that you have an opportunity to and we thought he got a lot more reps in fall camp, and we think he’s gonna be a really good player. I think if you look across the country it’s, it’s hard to prepare more than two people for a week of a game. It’s easy to read a lot of guys in off weeks to read a lot of guys in camp. But we have a we have had a lot of guys to read, and he got a lot of work early at camp, and they will continue to get a lot of work throughout this week in the coming weeks.”

Smart said Beck has improved, and that’s something they challenge each player in the program to do.

“We’ve got a lot of freshmen on our team that maybe haven’t gotten the opportunity to play and you’re only allowed to put 11 out there last time I checked,” Smart said.  “So we try to put the ones out there to give us the best opportunity to win but what we think we do better is we really plot and plan how we develop a guy, and how he gets reps, how you get to work to grow as a player, you know, Carson’s been in every single quarterback meeting. He’s been in every single walkthrough, he’s gotten a lot of opportunities in scrimmages and things that we weren’t weren’t able to give Stetson because Stetson had the experience of playing. So it’s one of those things that with every opportunity we get to go practice I think you’ll get better.”