UGA Football's Carson Beck: My First Three Years at UGA Were Tough

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ATHENS - UGA Football QB Carson Beck is entering his final season of college football - starting for Kirby Smart’s No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs. 

But it took the Jacksonville native years to become the Dawgs’ starter.

"This is my fifth year - it has been a long journey, and it hasn’t always been super easy,” he told Dawg Post this summer. “Those first three years were really tough - especially getting scrap playing time. It was playing time, but it wasn’t real playing time.”

Beck played only once during the Bulldogs’ 2020 season - that came at the conclusion of No. 9 Georgia’s 49-14 win over No. 25 Missouri. Beck handed the ball off for that entire drive. A year later it looked like Beck would bet he starter for the Dawgs’ second game of the season against UAB, but Stetson Bennett got the nod the day before the game. 

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Then Bennett took the Dawgs on one of the few back-to-back national title runs in college football history. Beck was the backup in 2022 - throwing for 310 yards on 26 of 35 throwing with four touchdowns and no interceptions. 

Beck said he was working the entire time as Bennett’s backup for his future. 

“I knew one day I would get that opportunity,” he said. “I think that’s what helped me stay and continue to compete. I wanted to be ready.”

Beck announced his return to the Bulldogs for his final season of college football just after the Bulldogs lost to Nick Saban’s final Alabama team in the 2023 SEC Championship Game. Beck and the Dawgs then bludgeoned No. 5 Florida State 63-3 at the Orange Bowl in the most lopsided bowl game in college football history. 

Beck is considered a leading Heisman Trophy candidate. He and the Bulldogs take on Dabo Swinney’s No. 14 Clemson Tigers in the season opener in Atlanta.

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