Smart: Georgia "Headed in the Right Direction" With Carson Beck's Return
Georgia might have fallen short of its goal of an unprecedented three-peat in 2023, but the the Bulldogs enter the 2024 offseason with soaring expectations once again as multiple sportsbooks have the program slotted as the betting favorite to win the 2024 College Football Playoff national championship. While Georgia consistently features one of the most formidable rosters in the country, it is the return of starting quarterback Carson Beck that is driving much of the elevated optimism for Georgia's chances to regain the college football throne next season.
Following Georgia's narrow loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, Beck, who had just wrapped up his fourth collegiate season, was one of a multitude of Georgia players to explore the possibility of making a jump to the NFL. After a brief period of uncertainty, on Dec. 18, the Jacksonville, Florida native announced his decision to return to Georgia for the 2024 season, in the process sending expectations for Georgia's odds to win its third national title in three seasons through the roof.
With Beck back in the fold for the 2024 season, the Bulldogs return one of the nation's premier players at the quarterback position. In his first 14 games as Georgia's starting quarterback in 2023, Beck set a school record for completion percentage in a single-season and posted the second-best single-season passing yardage total in program history (3,941), a mere 186-yards behind the record Stetson Bennett set in 15 games in 2022. According to Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart in an interview Thursday with Steak Shapiro and Rusty Mansell on 92.9 The Game, that type of production returning at what has increasingly become the sport's most important position has helped launch Georgia into the 2024 offseason with positive momentum.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart following the 63-3 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl | Photo - Brooks Austin
“I think it’s a huge momentum builder, gives a lot of confidence in the program that things are headed in the right direction,” Smart said. “He has enough confidence in us as coaches and as a staff to continue to lead and direct him in the right direction.”
Once again, Beck will have a wealth of talented to weapons to work with at the skill positions. Wide receivers Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas, who each started multiple games for Georgia during the 2023 season, are slated to return in 2024 along with burgeoning star receiver Dillon Bell who started the last three games of the 2023 season in Thomas' absence due to injury. The Bulldogs have also added talented wideouts London Humphreys (Vanderbilt), Colby Young (Miami), and Michael Jackson III (USC). At running back, former five-star running back Branson Robinson will return from a patellar injury that cost him the entirety of the 2023 season and Georgia also plucked the explosive Trevor Etienne from rival Florida via the transfer portal. Yet, despite the talent surrounding him, Smart made it clear that Georgia's offensive success in 2023 can largely be traced back to its quarterback play.
“If you’re No. 1 in the country on third down, you’ve got somebody that knows what he’s doing at quarterback,” Smart explained. “It doesn’t just happen. If you look across the nation and across the history of guys that have been good on third downs, they usually are high quarterback functioning people. That’s what he is.”
With that level of production and continuity returning on offense in 2024 combined with the talented pieces Georgia has added to its roster, it is quite easy to understand why Smart and his team enter the 2024 offseason with confidence in their ability to climb to the top of the college football mountain once again next season.
