JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Carson Beck is on deck to join the quarterback room at Georgia.
It seems like the on-the-record scouting report for the 2020 UGA commit conveys that he might be even better than his ratings.
That is even though the industry buzz regarding the nation’s No. 3 pro-style QB is very positive. He rates on the 247Sports Composite rankings as the nation’s No. 75 overall prospect.
That said, a very specific player parallel was made recently about Beck. It was authored by someone imminently qualified to do so.
Mandarin High School offensive coordinator Toby Bullock has serious Bulldog ties in his family but doesn’t dabble in recruiting with his players. He said he never once crossed that line with Beck even though he is a long-time UGA fan with a grandfather who even wore the red and black.
Bullock found his own way to frame all that Beck brings to the table. When he did, he phrased it in a way that any DawgNation reader would certainly understand.
“You never really really know with any of these guys,” Bullock said. “Even with the top guys. He could be a bust. But when I look at him I really look at him with having a Jake Fromm head on his shoulders but with a Matt Stafford arm. That’s what I see.”
To be honest, Bullock was hearing Beck might likely choose Florida for a time. That came after he de-committed from Alabama. If that was going to be it, that would be fine.
That’s because Bullock connects with his guys on a personal level. If Beck opted to play in Gainesville, it would simply mean he could see him play on a lot more Saturdays. He tries to juggle his coaching responsibilities around so he can make it up to Athens for at least one game each season.
Beck has told DawgNation he is officially “done” and will be a Bulldog. “For sure.” The phrase “for sure” means quite a lot in Beck’s world. Bullock now gets that feeling, too.
That Fromm-Stafford stuff was quite a lofty statement. But it is one that even Beck’s personal quarterback trainer feels was one of the better comparisons he has heard.
Denny Thompson states in the video interview featured above that a lot of college coaches do make comparisons between Beck and former NFL No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck.
I’m not sure that specific comparison hits the mark. It is near the center, but it isn’t touching the yellow in my estimation. That feeling is probably influenced by hearing story after story about “the throw” Carson made in the state championship game last year.
It serves as the capper for a playoff touchdown-to-interception ratio which reads 17 scores to just a single interception. That was a tipped ball swatted into the air by a future Clemson Tiger against Wekiva.
RELATED: Carson Beck shares his top five targets for the class of 2020 at Georgia
The Carson Beck throw from the 8A state championship
It was a 2nd-and-9 call from the Columbia 29-yard line. Mandarin led 30-21 with 10:53 left to play in the game.
Check out Beck’s highlight reel below. The play will be the second clip.
It makes it seem like he was born with a golden arch for an arm.
That throw melts away the other tangible scouting items like the fact he’s well over 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs right at 220 pounds. Or that he was already 6 feet, 3 inches tall when he was still in middle school.
It will also overshadow the fact he was clocked with a 91-mph fastball off the bump when he was 15.
That clip will just reflect a jaw-dropping dagger in the middle of the state championship for the largest classification in Florida.
“I just know in my head that my guy was even,” Beck said. “So we are told all the time with our receivers – especially a guy like ours who is pretty fast – that if he’s even, then he’s leaving that guy behind. That’s what he did. That was where I knew I wanted to put the ball.”
It is the greatest throw that Bullock said he has ever seen, too. That play was a flood concept. His first read was definitely smothered, covered, chunked and diced.
Beck completed it anyway.
“His number two read was wide open but he saw something and trusted that kid,” Bullock said. “He’s throwing an outside fade. The corner is right in his backside hip in great relation and he puts it over him right past the corner’s head. The kid puts his hands up at the last minute, it goes right past the corner’s head and over his shoulder and for a touchdown.”
“Right when that happened, the game was over. Columbia knew right then. They were not going to stop this kid. He was just too good. He is just too good.”
The throw brings to mind a similar absolutely perfect ball that Fromm completed to Riley Ridley against Alabama in the 2018 SEC Championship game.
Thompson spoke to a few former NFL quarterbacks about that throw afterward. They were at that state championship game.
None of those guys would have even attempted that throw.
His trainer would even go on to state that he feels it is the single best throw he’s ever seen a high school quarterback complete live. When he replays that heave these days, it still sparks goosebumps.
He goes into great detail describing that play in the video interview above.
That’s coming from a guy who has already trained a legion of quarterbacks, including current Auburn Tiger Joey Gatewood and another highly-rated 2020 passer in FSU commit Jeff Sims, among many others.
It seems the entire state still has something to say about the play.
“I thought it was getting picked to be completely transparent,” Mandarin High head coach Bobby Ramsey said. “I didn’t even see the receiver. From my vantage point, I just saw the defensive back. I’m thinking ‘this ball is about to be intercepted and I don’t know who is over there’ and then all of a sudden, you see the ball go over the defensive back and a guy with a white helmet running into the back of the end zone.”
“I thought it was an interception. I still see it and I think that ball is getting picked.”
Check out a live feed from Beck’s first spring scrimmage below. Most will not know that this spring marks his first spring practices at any point of his prep football career. He was always involved with high school baseball.
Beck was once committed to just play baseball at Florida at one time.
What Carson Beck did in 2018
Most folks who really know the Beck story can rattle off that he led Mandarin to the Class 8A state championship in 2018.
Beck even went on to the “Mr. Football” honor for the state of Florida at that. He was a rare junior to receive that honor. He didn’t just get a big trophy and a big swig of milk. His school also received a nice banner for the fieldhouse and a milk cooler from the Florida Dairy Farmers Association for the program.
It was the first state championship for Mandarin. That’s a public school south of Jacksonville not quite yet at the beaches. His Mustangs were also just 2-8 before Beck transferred in the previous season.
The 2018 slate also started off bumpy with a 1-2 start and a 2-3 mark at midseason. Beck kept improving game-by-game as the Mustangs finished the regular season up with a 6-4 record.
Mandarin was a different team as his game made leaps and bounds. The Deland game is a great example. Beck needed to fill a win out of his helmet with a clutch late drive to earn a 24-21 win during the regular season.
His Mustangs were staring at a 1-3 start to the season at the time.
“That drive he took us down the field and he took some shots,” Mandarin High head coach Bobby Ramsey said. “It was like what you would see on Saturday or Sundays as far as the way he commanded the offense. That drive just always sticks out when I think about him.”
When the two teams met again in the playoffs, the Mustangs thrashed them by 35 points. Beck was not needed after halftime.
It eventually all led to “the throw” Beck made in the Florida Class 8A state championship game.
Beck finished with a 25-of-36 passing line for 329 yards, five touchdowns with zero interceptions. The 475 yards he put up against Riverview in just the first half of a state semifinal pairing certainly beef up that total, but then he sat out the rest of that game.
His final junior year stat line reads that he completed 59 percent of 356 attempts for 3,546 yards, 35 touchdowns and eight interceptions. That was accomplished in just his first season as a first-string quarterback in Florida high school football.
It must also be noted that not all of those interceptions should be seen as a bad read. He likes to squeeze the ball into tight windows, but a few of those were recorded after his throws were tipped at the line.