The expected is now the official.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart named redshirt junior Carson Beck as his starting quarterback following Saturday afternoon’s second and final scrimmage of the preseason. Beck was the backup last season to Stetson Bennett, who began his Bulldogs career as a walk-on and ended it by guiding the program to consecutive national championships.
Redshirt sophomore Brock Vandagriff and redshirt freshman Gunner Stockton have also been vying to replace Bennett.
“Carson Beck is going to be our starting quarterback,” Smart said in a news conference. “He’s done the best job, and we communicated that earlier in the week to the other quarterbacks. We’ve kind of been operating that way, but the other guys have done a tremendous job in terms of competing, and they’re going to continue to do that. We haven’t set anything as far as who the No. 2 quarterback is and how those reps will be divvied up.
“Carson is just ahead of the other guys in terms of what he understands about the offense.”
Beck, a 6-foot-4, 215-pounder from Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida, played in seven of Georgia’s 15 contests last season and completed 26 of 35 passes (74.3%) for 310 yards and four touchdowns. He saw significant playing time late in the 49-3 opening rout of Oregon and again in the 65-7 title crushing of TCU, completing a combined 7 of 9 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Smart said Saturday was an improvement over last weekend’s first scrimmage, adding that the cooler weather likely helped the players in terms of their ability to sustain longer.
“This is the last of what I consider to be camp,” he said. “We’ll have four or five practices in the next eight days, so there is more time for recovery but not time for relaxing. We have a couple of spots still up for grabs, and we have to hone in on special teams and who our travel roster guys are going to be.”
The Bulldogs will have Sunday off and will review the scrimmage Monday and have a light workout as well. Smart said they will practice Tuesday and Wednesday on teams that appear further down the schedule, with either Thursday or Friday marking the start of prep work for the Sept. 2 opener against the University of Tennessee at Martin.
On the injury front, Smart said junior inside linebacker Smael Mondon (foot) hasn’t been practicing but will do some work Monday, that senior running back Kendall Milton (hamstring) is “really close” to returning, that sophomore running back Branson Robinson (foot) basically scrimmaged Saturday but hasn’t been tackled live, and that redshirt freshman running back Andrew Paul (ACL) isn’t 100% but “looks better and better.”
No decision at Bama
Alabama coach Nick Saban did not name a starting quarterback among redshirt sophomore Jalen Milroe, redshirt freshman Ty Simpson and Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner following Saturday’s second scrimmage and took speaking in generalities to a different level when asked what he saw from them.
“They all got to play,” Saban said. “They all took snaps. They all completed some passes. They all made some throws that weren’t as good as they should have been, and they all got sacked.
“That’s what I saw.”
Saban said five-star freshman running back Justice Haynes sat out the scrimmage with a quad contusion.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.