JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Even with Carson Beck’s recent struggles, Georgia has had the edge at quarterback in almost every game it has played this season. That might not be the case in the next one.
Following Saturday’s harder-than-expected 34-20 win over Florida, the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs (7-1, 5-1 SEC) head back on the road to face No. 19 Ole Miss in Oxford. The Rebels (7-2, 3-2) steamrolled Arkansas 63-31 Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Leading the way in that blowout was senior quarterback Jaxson Dart, who leapfrogged Ole Miss greats Matt Corral and Eli Manning with school records for passing yards (515) and touchdowns (6) in a game. With the 25-of-31 afternoon Saturday, Dart will enter the Georgia game with 3,210 yards, 21 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 71.7% passing for the season.
What’s more, the performance came without Ole Miss star receiver Tre Harris, who missed his second straight game after suffering a leg injury against LSU. No problem — inside receiver Jordan Watkins moved outside to Harris’ spot and caught five TD passes against the Razorbacks.
“Just a clean offensive game,” Rebels coach Lane Kiffin said. “And then having no turnovers, one sack, I told them I’m just excited that I see them play like they can play as a team even without some players.”
In the preseason, Dart took a back seat to Beck when it came to expectations for awards and NFL draft stock. But with three more interceptions Saturday — and six in his last two games — it’s Beck who’s now in the back seat. He’s up to 11 interceptions for the season after logging only six in 14 games last season and is down 7.5 points in completion percentage (65.5). Dart’s passer QB rating is 192.37; Beck’s is 143.95.
Georgia will need Beck to cut down on mistakes while the offense picks it up in other areas before arriving in Oxford next Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN or ABC). Indications are the Bulldogs won’t want to get into a shootout with Rebels and Dart at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Here are five more things we learned Saturday:
Does Kirby coddle Carson?
Georgia coach Kirby Smart was known for his tough-love approach to handling quarterback Stetson Bennett during his two-year run leading the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and ‘22. But he has handled Beck quite differently in the senior’s two years as Georgia’s QB1.
After Beck threw his second interception in five offensive plays early in the second quarter Saturday, ABC cameras caught Smart in a long, tender embrace with Beck, with the coaches’ hands draped around the quarterback’s neck as if they were slow-dancing at prom.
His next time on the field with Georgia’s offense, Beck held the ball too long and was sacked. From then until halftime, the 6-4, 220-pound veteran completed just three of his next eight passes for 25 yards and ended the half with three straight incompletions.
“I’m not concerned with it because, I mean, you throw the ball and that’s going to happen sometimes,” Smart said after the game. “We’ve got to try to do a good job of preventing it, but we also won the game because we can throw the ball, right?”
But compare that with what Smart said about Bennett after he threw for three TDs and ran for another in a comeback win over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2022: “He’s gotta play within our system and he’s gotta do what he’s coached to do or you can’t win games,” Smart said of Bennett, who had one interception in the game. “He didn’t get those opportunities (to lead a comeback) until the defense stopped them. He must play better if we expect to win the next one.”
Georgia won the next one 65-7 over TCU, securing the national championship.
To Beck’s credit, he seems at his best when the chips are down against Georgia. With the game tied 20-all, Beck led the Bulldogs on a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive that was punctuated with a 10-yard TD pass to Dominic Lovett. That drive included a 34-yard, perfectly-thrown completion to Arian Smith across the middle on third-and-7 at the Georgia 28.
As for his many mistakes, Beck is at least taking ownership.
“It’s just an in-game, decision-making thing,” said the Bulldogs’ highest-paid player. “There’re times it’s OK to throw it away if it’s not there. I did a lot better job of that last year. I can’t go back and change it as much as I wish I could.”
Etienne bows out
It’s a good thing the Bulldogs had Nate Frazier on Saturday night because they were just about out of backs.
Frazier, a 5-foot-10, 205-pound freshman from Compton, California, stepped up and essentially had to take over the ball-carrying duties after starter Trevor Etienne mysteriously left the game in the second quarter. Etienne had seven carries for 31 yards when he was escorted to the Bulldogs’ locker room. It wasn’t until later in the broadcast that Etienne had some sort of rib injury.
From that point forward, Frazier carried the football on every running-back designed rush the rest of the game. Frazier logged a season-high 19 carries for 82 yards, scored a touchdown and caught two passes for seven yards.
“He did some good things tonight,” Smart said Frazier. “He had some mistakes, too; and I’m not talking about the penalty.”
Dillon Bell, Dwight Phillips and Arian Smith logged runs from receiver positions and Georgia netted 146 yards on the ground, which tied for the third most this season. Cash Jones had three catches for 39 yards and a touchdown.
As for Etienne, there was no obvious play on which he was injured. Smart said “he was dealing with a rib injury a little bit, and he’s fine. Just had some pain in there.”
Etienne left the game about the same time Florida’s DJ Lagway had to be taken off the field on a medical cart with a serious leg injury. Meanwhile, ABC sideline reporter Holly Rowe shared that Smart had Etienne meet this past week with a team psychologist before facing his old team.
“He wanted him to learn how to keep your composure, make this only about the football game, focus on what’s ahead of you and let your emotions not take you away from what you’re supposed to be doing play-to-play,” Rowe said.
Georgia already was playing without running backs Roderick Robinson (toe) and Branson Robinson (knee) due to injuries.
Happy returns for Starks
It has been since high school that Malaki Starks worked a full game as a punt returner. But that’s what the junior safety had to do Saturday as Anthony Evans — the Bulldogs’ only returner all season — sat with a hamstring injury suffered in practice late last week.
And Starks got a lot of work. He finished with 31 yards on three returns, with a long of 11. That matched the second-most punt returns in a game this season. Evans had five for 62 yards against Tennessee Tech and three for 23 in the season opener against Clemson.
Starks probably should have returned a couple more. Florida punter was booming some long ones, averaging 49.1 yards on eight punts. On two of those, Starks made fair catches with plenty of room to run.
But with Evans out, Starks’ primary job was to just catch the ball, which he did without so much as a bobble. Starks earned the job over Sacovie White, Michael Jackson III and Dominic Lovett, all of whom were catching punts in pregame warm-ups.
Evans, a sophomore wideout, is averaging 8.4 yards on 14 punt returns. He’s also back deep alongside Dillon Bell on kickoff returns, who shared that duty with Cash Jones on Saturday. Just as important, Evans is a regular in the receiver rotation.
“We’re hopeful to get him back (for Ole Miss),” Smart said of Evans. “It’s why we train multiple guys to be able to return the ball.”
Aguero, ‘Dirty Dan’ back
Georgia survived the first-half losses of Joenel Aguero and Dan Jackson from the defense, but it was shaky for a while there.
Aguero and Jackson, each starting defensive backs, had to sit out the first half to fulfill the suspension portion of the targeting penalties they were flagged for against Texas. The Bulldogs’ defense struggled without them, especially in the second quarter when Florida put up 13 points.
Not coincidentally, junior JaCorey Thomas, Aguero’s fill-in at the position as the fifth-defensive-back position known as “star,” had to leave the game at the 11:34 mark of the second quarter with an undisclosed injury. That was on the first of a 10-play, 37-yard touchdown drive by the Gators.
“We lost (Thomas) there for a few snaps,” Smart said. “So, that’s why you practice the twos and threes. It’s why you develop players.”
Redshirt freshman Kyron Jones came in for some of the snaps in the interim, and Georgia rotated others in the defensive backfield until Jackson and Aguero could check in the second half.
Freshman KJ Bolden started at safety and finished with five tackles and a pass breakup. Jackson had two tackles and defended a pass and Aguero had one tackle in one half of play.
“I can’t say how they played,” Smart said. “I thought we had some jitters there. I thought it was really good for KJ Bolden to get to start and play and get some confidence. I mean, we could have played better. I’ll say that, but we survived.”
CJ Allen soars
CJ Allen’s interception with 3:47 remaining was huge for what it meant to the outcome of the game, but the sophomore linebacker deserves some style points for the high-leaping play as well.
Georgia had just scored to go ahead 27-20 when the Jaden Baugh’s 16-yard kickoff return left the Gators at their own 17 with their ensuing possession.
On first down, backup quarterback Aidan Warner rolled right and was looking to throw the ball back to the middle of the field. But Allen, coming all the way outside from his middle linebacker position, came off his coverage of the running back on a flat route and jumped high in the air to snag the interception. Keeping his footing, he was able to return the interception six yards before being tripped down. The ensuing penalty for tripping gave the Bulldogs to ball first-and-goal from the Florida 7. They scored two plays later to go ahead 34-20.
“I thought the guy was wide open,” Smart said. “They had a nice play called, a little bootleg action. It was a copycat play from one we had seen earlier this year and gave up a touchdown, and the guy was open. CJ made a freaky, unbelievable play to jump up and snag it. That was probably the biggest change in the game.”
The 6-1, 235-pound sophomore out of Lamar County led the Bulldogs with eight tackles and also recorded two quarterback hurries. Georgia allowed the Gators just 228 yards, which was the third-lowest total of the season.
Also having standout defensive performances were inside linebacker Raylen Wilson (7 tackles, 1 hurry), outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss (6 tackles, 2 sacks, 2.5 TFLs) and Jalon Walker (5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery).
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