The “game manager” label is far too misused in today’s era of college football. And, in reality, it shouldn’t even be given a negative connotation.
It’s one that has been pinned to standout Georgia quarterback Carson Beck many a time that head coach Kirby Smart seemed to make a point of calling out after the 31-13 victory over Auburn.
“Nobody really understands what Carson does in our offense, and you can’t really appreciate it unless you know what’s going on,” Smart said.
There have been some who have lamented the way that Beck doesn’t “throw it deep” as much as they’d like to see, but, in reality, a quarterback must only do what they’re being asked to do from the coaching staff.
Bo Nix came under the same type of fire for simply executing what he was called upon to do, and that doesn’t always involve deep shot after deep shot.
And, in reality, Beck has shown he can be successful in the deep passing game on multiple occasions and does possess NFL-level arm strength in addition to prototypical size.
He puts the proper touch, accuracy, velocity and anticipation practically perfectly on just about every throw he makes.
Anything outside of that is nothing short of uncharacteristic.
He’s had just one performance that meets that criteria of “uncharacteristic.” That was the 41-34 loss to Alabama in which Beck threw three interceptions. Before that, he had never thrown more than one interception in a single game in his career.
Outside of that, Beck’s stat line was actually rather impressive as he went 27-for-50, passing for 439 yards with three touchdowns and three picks.
Smart wasn’t the least bit concerned, and at the end of the day, that’s the opinion that matters the most.
“He has a routine he does and he trusts that routine… I also do think he played really well against Alabama at times and he got a lot of confidence in that game,” Smart said following the victory over Auburn. “There were a lot of good things he did and he did a lot of good things today.”
Beck saw what happened against the Crimson Tide as a bit of the law of probability in play, despite the fact he may have wanted a handful of throws back.
“When you throw the ball 50 times, you’re bound to make mistakes, whether it’s my fault or someone else’s fault. I’m always going to take the blame and I’m going to come back and fix it. Be better the next week.”
So, looking past some of the baseless criticism, what is it exactly that has contributed to Carson Beck one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the nation?
The potential early-round 2025 NFL Draft selection almost seems to have, while still unique in his own right, projected as a perfect hybrid of the quarterbacks he sat behind holding the clipboard before he became the starter.
Beck could have transferred, but stuck it out and developed behind a pair of the strongest quarterbacks Georgia has ever had.
Those signal-callers were JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett, two polar opposite players that were very heralded for two entirely different skill sets.
It was one of the most polarizing competitions we’ve seen in recent history, with the nation’s former top quarterback prospect and potential Heisman Trophy winner ultimately being overtaken by a walk-on who held just one FBS offer from Middle Tennessee coming out of high school.
There was plenty of disdain from the fan base in the first national championship season Bennett held the helm for Georgia in as the Bulldogs essentially achieved the titled in spite of Bennett’s decision-making follies that head coach Kirby Smart himself termed as “boneheaded mistakes.”
They wanted Daniels, who was plagued by injury for his entire career, back. He was the better player at the time, but Smart made the decision to roll with Bennett.
Bennett, when I spoke with him at the Manning Passing Academy, reflected on that time period and didn’t cut himself any slack.
“It wasn’t my best game, but it wasn’t awful,” Bennett said of his first national title game appearance. “But in the fourth quarter when we needed it, we turned it on.”
He was fully self-aware of what he needed to fix moving into the season in which he won his second consecutive national championship.
“My footwork in the pocket is my big focus,” Bennett said at the time. “My consistency in my drops. And then just the timing with the wideouts on timing routes is another thing I’ve really put a lot of work into.”
Bennett eventually settled into himself, never fully achieving the same level of mental processing that Daniels possessed better than any quarterback, but providing the right type of improvisation ability required in the modern era of quarterbacking that Daniels never possessed.
Daniels himself will tell you that he lacks anything athletically to bring to the table, and that he would have been more successful in earlier years where pure pocket passers were more in-demand.
“I’d like to be less slow, you know, less like a generic, white, 6-foot guy,” Daniels told me ahead of his first and only season at Rice. “Step out and move a little bit. Maybe it’s not in my genetics but we’ll see.”
There’s a need to be able to function effectively outside of the pocket.
“I’ve always had pocket presence and can move enough in the phone booth,” Daniels, who now serves as an offensive analyst working with quarterbacks at the University of West Georgia said. “But there are very few quarterbacks who can actually be a true dual-threat.”
Beck, who sat behind both of them, wields an impressive level of mental processing, while also moving the chains for the Bulldogs with his legs in third-down situations. Really, one could argue he has a functional degree of athleticism outside of just being able to improvise when the situation demands it of him.
It’s the perfect combination between Bennett and Daniels with just a little something extra that sets him in the elite tier of quarterbacks.
He’ll look to continue proving that as the season rolls on with April coming much sooner than it feels like it is.
