ATHENS – It’s still early. Real early. But Georgia’s offense in the first year of ‘Beck-Bobo-Bowers’ is starting to look pretty special.
Even during some unimpressive stretches early this season, they were quietly compiling big stats, especially in the area of throwing the football. Now that we’ve rounded the corner to the second half to the regular-season, it’s safe to say that Georgia has developed an identity led by offensive coordinator Mike Bobo - and it’s built around the unique passing skills of quarterback Carson Beck.
The redshirt junior from Jacksonville was named the SEC’s offensive player of the week for his performance against No. 20 Kentucky this past Saturday. Beck became the first Georgia quarterback since Aaron Murray to throw for more than 300 yards in three consecutive games when he hit the Wildcats with 389 and 4 touchdowns in a three-quarter stretch of a 51-13 victory.
In all three of those games, Beck’s primary target was tight end Brock Bowers, who passed the 100-yard receiving barrier in each one. But Beck also targeted 11 other receivers against Kentucky and has spread the wealth all year.
In all, Beck’s passes have been hauled in by 19 different Georgia receivers. Seven players have at least 100 yards receiving so far, and that’s with Ladd McConkey last year’s second-leading pass-catcher accounting for only 49 yards on 5 receptions so far due to just recently returning from the injury list.
About all this, coach Kirby Smart claims to not be the least bit surprised.
“He’s a great mental processor,” Smart said of Beck during UGA’s weekly media day press conference on Monday. “I mean, Carson’s very intelligent, guys. You know, you can say what you want about the quarterback position, but you have to process information rapidly; and the more information you can handle, the more flexibility your offense has. The flexibility of an offense is usually tied to what the quarterback can handle.
“Our quarterback — not only because he’s smart but because he’s also of age and being in the same system for multiple years — has been able to grow from that.”
Indeed, Beck is not your typical first-year starter. A major-league baseball prospect as a pitcher in high school, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound athlete is a fourth-year college football player. He spent two seasons in No. 2 roles and once before this season even spent a week of practice as QB1. In the meantime, Beck has sat in quarterback rooms with Jake Fromm, JT Daniels, Stetson Bennett, D’Wan Mathis and Jamie Newman, among others.
This year, Georgia made the transition from offensive coordinator Todd Monken to Bobo, but Smart is quick to point out that the system and terminology remained the same. And considering Beck showed up as an early enrollee in December of 2019, he has easily earned an undergraduate degree in the Bulldogs’ uniquely pro-style offense.
Combining his acumen for fast-learning with his work both inside and outside of the Butts-Mehre complex, Beck is well on his way to advanced football degrees at this point.
“The position of quarterback is so unique because no two quarterbacks are the same,” Beck said at Monday’s media event. “Being around so many different quarterbacks in my time here -- and not only that but as far as training goes and guys I’ve trained with back in Jacksonville with my quarterback coach -- being able to see the different guys process things and how they throw, different mechanics, you can take different bits and pieces from each guy. Everyone is so different and unique and you try to add it to your game so I can continuously improve.”
Beck said the biggest difference in his play now and earlier in his career -- and even earlier this season, is just a growing confidence in what’s doing. He called himself “blessed” for the situation he has been placed in with the Bulldogs this season. That starts with having Bowers as the feature piece of the offense.
Having a generational tight end on the field with his certainly helps. Against Kentucky, Beck was on the field for 62 snaps and Bowers was out there with him for 61. Almost everything Georgia does offensively filters through number 19.
CBS Sports research identified Bowers this week as the “greatest tight end in college football this century.” It is based on the fact that the 6-4, 240-pound junior has recorded 10 games of at least 100 yards receiving and one touchdown. That’s three more than any other tight end since 2000 (James Casey of Rice and Ladarius Green of Louisiana had 7 each).
“I don’t really think about that kind of stuff,” Bowers said after Saturday’s game of 7-catch, 132-yard, 1-TD game. “I kind of hear stuff and just kind of block it out. I just try to focus on what I’ve got to do the next day.”
For more than 1,000 days, that has meant working with Beck at Georgia’s football facility. For Bobo, it has been only the last two years. But one of the keys to Smart appointing Bobo the Bulldogs’ new offensive coordinator when Monken bolted for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens last February was having been indoctrinated in the Georgia’s offensive system the previous year as an analyst and given the dictate simply to “keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
“I made a quick decision there because I was really confident,” Smart said of promoting his longtime friend. “We had the luxury of having the quarterback coming back that really wasn’t your typical first-time starter. When you have a guy that’s been in the system as long as he has, I felt comfortable that he knew the system and that I wanted to keep the system the same. And those guys have transitioned well together.”
Indeed they have. Georgia is throwing the football the more than it has any time in the Smart era and the most since the great Eric Zeier was playing quarterback in 1994. The Bulldogs are throwing the football 52.8% of the time. They’re averaging 349.7 yards per game, which leads the SEC.
Beck’s ability to advance the football via the forward pass is a big part of that equation. The Bulldogs remain below full strength at the running back position and might never get there this season.
Georgia’s ability to design a sophisticated passing scheme around Bowers and Beck has helped it navigate that shortcoming.
“It’s very, very rare in college football or pro football for a quarterback to be in the same system more than three years,” Smart said. “(For Beck), it think it’s three or four. It’s like he understands it, he knows how to use it, and he’s got good weapons around him to help him with it. So his intuition along with ability has helped him.”
