NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It’s gone pretty well for the Georgia Bulldogs the past two seasons. Very well, in fact.
With the exception of an SEC Championship game loss to Alabama in 2021, things have gone perfectly on the field. The Bulldogs, if you have not heard, are back-to-back national champions.
But coach Kirby Smart admits there are some things they might have handled better. Such as the quarterback position, for instance.
Oh, things worked out all right. Former walk-on Stetson Bennett eventually earned the starting job, earned offensive MVP honors in every College Football Playoff game the past two seasons and eventually landed a $4.54 million contract ($700,000 guaranteed) as a fourth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams.
But, lest we forget, it took the Bulldogs a while to get to Bennett. For a while, it seemed they were bent on considering every quarterback candidate they had other than Bennett.
Which brings us to this year’s quarterback competition.
Junior Carson Beck enters preseason camp favored to win the job over sophomore Brock Vandagriff. But the distribution of snaps over the six weeks is something that Smart plans to closely monitor, thanks in part to how things played out before the Bulldogs finally turned to Bennett.
“It’s way more important to get it right – and I don’t know if we’ve always done that – than it is to do it fast,” Smart said when asked Tuesday at SEC Media Days if Beck will receive the majority of work with the No. 1 offense in camp. “Looking back, you could ask why didn’t Stetson get more reps for two years, really. I understand why he didn’t when he was a freshman walk-on, but why he didn’t get more upon his return, maybe we didn’t manage that right.”
A quick review of Georgia’s quarterback history will remind folks that former offensive coordinator Todd Monken seemed to go out of his way at first NOT to give Bennett much opportunity to work with the No. 1 offense. He was set to go with JT Daniels entering the 2021 season and gave him almost all of the meaningful work heading into that season. Meanwhile, Beck actually got the majority of the secondary work with the No. 1 unit and primary work with the No. 2 unit heading into that season.
It was only after Daniels went down with a back injury in Week 2 and Monken began to give Bennett and Beck equal reps with the No. 1 unit in practice that the Bulldogs began to realize what they truly had in Bennett. Bennett won the start against Alabama-Birmingham, threw five touchdown passes in the first half, and as they say, the rest is history.
Two national championships later, Monken departed for the NFL and Smart brought in Mike Bobo as offensive coordinator. But there may have been some lessons from that experience as the Bulldogs attempt to settle on a starter for this season.
“I can’t put a timetable on that or give you a volume of plays, but I thought we did a really good job in the spring of doing that,” Smart said. “I make Coach Bobo and the offensive staff bring me a sheet of paper every day that says, ‘this is who’s getting the 1′s percentage, this is who’s getting the 2′s percentage, this is who’s getting the 3s.’ The one luxury we have is Carson has gotten a greater volume (with the 1s).
“If you’re willing to cut his volume, you’re able to increase the other two’s volume with the 1s. So, we’ll see how that goes. But right now I don’t know how that will go or how fast.”
The consensus among those who have closely observed Georgia’s workouts over the past seven months is that Beck likely will start opening game. But at that point another measurement will be invoked in the competition – quarterbacks’ performances in games.
Smart allowed that game performance is the most important measurement. But the question is whether the Bulldogs’ will utilize multiple quarterbacks in early season games.
Winners of 29 of its past 30 games, Georgia has a very unintimidating opening month of the season. After opening against Tennessee-Martin of the FCS Ohio Valley Conference, then plays Ball State, South Carolina and UAB, all in Athens. It’s not until Sept. 30 that the Bulldogs finally travel for a road game, at Auburn.
Will Georgia plan to give Vandagriff and redshirt freshman Gunner Stockton equal playing time – or play them at all – in those early contests? That remains to be seen.
“There’s no way I could speculate on that,” Smart said Tuesday. “But does (game action) matter? Absolutely it matters. It’s the No. 1 measure we have, and it’s the one thing we can’t measure until then because, as we’ve said over and over, you can’t tackle the quarterback in practice. In the game, they get tackled.”
The reality is, Georgia’s quarterbacks have very little game experience entering the season. In three seasons, Beck has appeared in 12 games and completed 62.1% of his passes (35 of 58) for 486 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions. Vandagriff has played in four games, is 0-for-3 passing and has one 7-yard run. Stockton has not played.
“Brock has very limited game action. We haven’t given him an opportunity to open up and do things in games,” Smart said. “Carson, we’ve done a few things with him, so we have more measurement with him. Gunner hasn’t done anything. The closest thing these guys have to game action is the spring games.”
All of them have stayed busy since spring practice. The NCAA allows much more coach-supervised work – eight hours a week in the summer – than it did up until 2020. In the meantime, the players compete in 7-on-7 competitions and can do all the volunteer work they can stand.
The majority of the work between quarterbacks and Georgia’s front-line receivers has been distributed between Beck and Vandagriff. Reportedly they both have been impressive.
“We do 7-on-7s and throw a good amount during the week,” junior tight end Brock Bowers said Tuesday. “I know I’d hate to be the one to make that decision because they’re both really good.”
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