Kirby Smart explains why he didn’t learn a lot from Carson Beck’s first road start
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The first game on the road often says a lot about an SEC quarterback. Georgia’s Carson Beck made his first start away from home in a hostile rivalry environment this past Saturday at Auburn.
On Monday, Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked what he learned about Beck seeing his quarterback start in a road game for the first time. Smart explained that he knows Beck so well that the Auburn game wasn’t actually all that revealing.
“You know, most quarterbacks that start for the first time, you maybe don’t know enough. I feel like I had this relationship and I knew Carson,” Smart told reporters. “I don’t feel like I’ve learned a lot because I knew a lot. He had been in the system. Like, he had played – not played in that environment, I’m not trying to change the experience. But I had been around the kid, he had been in the program, he had been in the offense. I’ve seen him have good days on third down against our defense, have bad days. I’ve seen him make good decisions with the ball. He was really efficient.”
Beck, a fourth-year junior, did establish something important at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“I guess the only thing that I’ve learned is that he does have natural composure,” Smart said. “I already thought that because that’s the way he practices. But he doesn’t get flustered very easily.”
In the 27-20 win over Auburn, Beck finished 23-of-33 passing for 313 yards, 1 touchdown and 1. Georgia’s remaining road games are against Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Georgia Tech, with the Florida game in Beck’s hometown of Jacksonville.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
