ATHENS — Georgia quarterback Carson Beck admitted it felt different on Saturday night in Sanford Stadium. Most obviously, he was referring to the fact that he was making his first collegiate start for the Bulldogs.
But he also spoke about another first on Saturday. That would be his first career rushing touchdown in Georgia’s 48-7 win over UT-Martin.
“It was exciting,” Beck said. “To be the guy running in the end zone is a little different feeling than being the guy that threw it.”
In addition to his second-quarter rushing touchdown, Beck completed 21 of his 31 pass attempts for 294 yards and a touchdown. He also didn’t turn the ball over in the win.
Beck admitted to being a little nervous, stating he didn’t really calm down until the second quarter. It’s understandable, given the last time he started a game of any kind came back in November of 2019.
“I think it took a little transition period. Just working through some things,” Beck said. “It’s our first game and we’re going to have a few bumps in the road. In the second quarter, I think as a whole offense we settled in.”
On the night, there was more bad than good from Beck. Afterward, head coach Kirby Smart could only pinpoint two obvious errors from Beck. A miscommunication with Dominic Lovett that led to a wide-open miss on an early third down, and some poor clock management that led to Georgia settling for a field goal at the end of the second quarter. Smart also noted an overthrow to Arian Smith when the speedy receiver got behind the defense. Beck managed to overthrow Georgia’s fastest player.
Beck found a better rhythm in the second half, finding Mekhi Mews and CJ Smith for chunk plays. The former housed a screen pass for a 54-yard touchdown. With Georgia up 31-0 late in the third quarter, head coach Kirby Smart had seen enough and pulled Beck from the game.
“I was very proud of Carson in his first start. I thought he had great composure,” Smart said. “Really that was the epitome of every scrimmage he had. He threw the ball away when he had to, he hit spots when he had to, he made good decisions, he didn’t put us at risk, he made good checks. He did some really good things, and I’m proud of him. We’ve got to get some more help around him with weapons, get some guys healthy, but I’m proud of what he did.”
Georgia was without wide receivers Ladd McConkey and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, the former dealing with a back injury and the latter dealing with some internal team discipline. Getting them back will undoubtedly make life easier for Beck, as will a healthier group of running backs. Daijun Edwards did not play in the win, while Kendall Milton was only about 90 percent healthy after a hamstring injury.
Beck did have the ever-dependable Brock Bowers, who was Georgia’s leading receiver on the night with five receptions for 77 yards. He also scored Georgia’s first touchdown of the season on a 3-yard run in the first quarter.
“I thought he did pretty good,” Bowers said of Beck. “Our whole gameplan was to get the ball to our athletes in space and I think we did that. We’re just going to get better from there”
Beck echoed a similar sentiment to Bowers. The quarterback is glad to have finally gotten that first Georgia start out of the way. But he knows he’s going to have to keep getting better. He’d have said that even if he looked like the second coming of Patrick Mahomes, but it’s true on a night where it did take Georgia a while to get going. The Bulldogs led only 17-0 at halftime.
Beck won’t have the same level of nerves when he steps on the field next Saturday against Ball State. He’ll work this week on getting on the same page with Georgia’s talented pass catchers.
Saturday night was a personal victory for Beck, who waited his time to become the starter. Like any regular season Georgia win though, he won’t dwell on it for too long.
“Now that we’ve got this out of the way and got the win, we can celebrate,” Beck said. “We’re excited about the win and move on to next week.”
