ATHENS — Carson Beck probably is not going to win the Heisman Trophy this year. The real question at this late juncture is whether he will get an invite to the ceremony to New York.
The Georgia Bulldogs’ position on the subject is predictable.
“His film speaks for him,” sophomore tight end Oscar Delp said of Georgia’s quarterback. “It’s not like his stats are bad; look at quarterbacks who have been here previously. I think he deserves a spot in New York.”
Said coach Kirby Smart: “I don’t lobby for those guys, but it’s easy to sit back and say, ‘Look at what this kid has done.’”
Beck’s situation is similar to the quarterback that preceded him. Stetson Bennett made it to the Heisman show last year, but he went there without any realistic expectations of winning the award that goes annually to “college football’s most outstanding player.” Ultimately, the sixth-year senior finished fourth in voting behind USC quarterback Caleb Williams, who won the award, TCU quarterback Max Duggan and Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud.
Bennett’s team, of course, beat Stroud’s and Duggan’s head-to-head in the weeks that followed the Heisman presentation. The Bulldogs and Bennett also beat Alabama and the 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young head-to-head in the national championship game the previous season.
Maybe this always will be the case with Georgia quarterbacks. Other than the wins, the Bulldogs keep stacking like cord wood, the statistical profiles of their quarterbacks simply don’t stand out in comparison to the do-everything signal-callers who are favored to win the trophy.
This year’s leaders are a perfect example of that. LSU’s Jayden Daniels, who has put up monster numbers on an 8-3 team, is considered the co-favorite along with Oregon’s Bo Nix, who has done the same for the one-loss Ducks. They both were listed at +120 in Las Vegas sportsbooks as of this week.
Nix moved even with Daniels and, at some places, past him, after accounting for six touchdowns Saturday. Nix has completed 78.1% of his passes for 3,539 yards and 35 touchdowns, with only two interceptions. But his 128 yards and five touchdowns rushing pales in comparison with Daniels’ 1,014 yards and 10 scores. Daniels has completed 72.6% of his passes for 3,577 yards and 36 TDs with only four picks.
Washington’s Michael Penix (3,695-30-7) has the next-best odds at +500, while Beck is significantly behind in fourth at +3300.
As Delp asserted, there is nothing wrong with Beck’s numbers. He’s completing 72.9% of his passes – which is on pace for the school record – for 3,320 yards, 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. He has three rushing touchdowns but only 105 yards on the ground.
In Beck’s first season as the Bulldogs’ starter, the most impressive stat to date for the 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior is that he is the first quarterback in SEC history to pass for 250 yards or more in each of his first 11 games. Beck also has been astonishingly good on third downs. The Bulldogs lead the nation with a 57% conversion rate. He was 8-of-12 (66%) Saturday in a 38-10 victory at No. 18 Tennessee.
Georgia’s style of play during its record-breaking run has been more boa constrictor than viper. In an age when a lot of teams seek only to out-score opponents, the Bulldogs still play complementary football. That was well-demonstrated Saturday at Neyland Stadium as Georgia possessed the football for nearly 41 minutes. The Volunteers had the ball for only 19:02.
“The worst thing for Beck individually is he plays with a good defense,” Smart said after Beck threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns Saturday. “It makes you not want to sit there and just run it up. Some of these other guys, they have to score 40 a game. ... We don’t think we have to score 40 a game.”
Even though they do. The Bulldogs are averaging 40.6 points per game, just a half-point behind last season’s pace.
About all this, Beck simply shrugs.
“I could care less,” he said Saturday. “As long as we’re winning every week, that’s our goal.”
Drop zone
Beck’s numbers against the Vols could have been better if not for a couple of uncharacteristic drops by the Bulldogs’ receivers.
Tight end Brock Bowers said he “absolutely” should have caught Beck’s pass on second-and-18 that would have given the Bulldogs a first down inside the Tennessee 20 on their first offensive possession of the game. In the third quarter, a wide-open Delp had an egregious drop that would have given Beck and the Bulldogs another third-down conversion near midfield. Instead, Georgia punted for only the second time in the game.
“Just a mental drop,” Delp said. “Everything was perfect on that play. Honestly, that was on me. The only thing you can do is just put it behind you and look to the next play. I’m going to do the same thing I do every week. I’m going to be on the Juggs machine every day. Just one of those plays I usually make, and I just didn’t make it.”
The Bulldogs have gotten great play out of all their receivers this season, but have encountered more drops than a year ago. Some of that has to do with the tremendous velocity Beck puts on certain throws. Bowers, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, Dominic Lovett and Dillon Bell were among Beck’s targets who caught passes Saturday almost out of self-defense. Beck is delivering a lot of balls hard right at his receivers’ facemasks and often before they come out of their cuts.
“As each game comes and we continue to execute at the high level that we are, not only my confidence grows but the confidence of the offense as a whole grows,” Beck said.
Said Delp: “It’s all timing, which we work on every day in practice. The teams we play, you’ve got to speed things up or slow things down, depending on who you’re going against. We’ve found that rhythm with Carson. He’s always going to have the ball there at the right time in the right spot. It’s great to have a quarterback like that, and we’ve got to adjust to it.”
Award watch
Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo made the cut as one of 15 semifinalists for the Broyles Award. Five finalists will be announced Nov. 28, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Dec. 5. Bobo also was a finalist for the award when he was coordinating the Bulldogs’ offense for Mark Richt in 2012. Todd Monken, who Bobo replaced, was a finalist last year.
Georgia’s Bowers was named a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year award for the second year in a row.
Given to college football’s outstanding receiver, Bowers is one of 10 semifinalists for Biletnikoff, five whom hail from SEC schools. Three finalists will be announced Nov. 28, and winner will be announced during The Home Depot ESPN College Football Awards on Dec. 8.
Three finalists for the Walter Camp also will be announced Nov. 28 and the winner Dec. 8. Bowers joined quarterback Stetson Bennett as a 2022 Walter Camp Player of the Year semifinalist. Herschel Walker (1982) is the only Bulldog to claim the honor.
Bowers also is Rotary Lombardi Award finalist and a semifinalist for the Maxwell and Mackey awards. The 6-4, 240-pound junior has a team-high 661 receiving yards on 51 catches and six receiving touchdowns despite missing two games because of midseason surgery for an ankle injury. Bowers has 10 100-yard receiving games in his career and has led the Bulldogs in receiving four games this season. Against Georgia Tech on Saturday night, he’ll be seeking his first 100-yard game since Oct. 7 against Kentucky.
They said it
“You guys read the news. We’ve been on upset alert for I don’t know how many weeks now. We’re going to continue to take those punches and keep going. We’re going to continue to go out and work, day-in and day out. … The proof is in the pudding. You can’t be complacent and be here.”
– Georgia safety Javon Bullard on having never lost a regular-season game in his career.
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