ATHENS — Florida coach Billy Napier has taken note of Carson Beck’s growth in the Georgia offense with Saturday’s rivalry game in Jacksonville fast approaching.
“I see a talented athlete and passer,” Napier said on the SEC Coaches’ Teleconference on Wednesday. “He’s obviously been there a number of years.”
Napier knows that all too well; he once had former UGA quarterback Stetson Bennett committed and on the verge of signing with him at Louisiana in 2019 before Georgia came in with signing day offer.
As UGA fans recall Bennett passed up Beck on the UGA depth chart in 2020, and again in 2021, leading to a well-documented Cinderella Story that college football couldn’t get enough of the past two seasons.
And yet, it’s Beck who has actually had a harder path at UGA than Bennett, making the commitment to stay at Georgia and develop rather than transfer away.
Indeed, Beck may have had the higher recruiting rankings than Bennett, but he sat out more games and has a lesser supporting cast than the 2021 and 2022 Bulldogs on account of injuries, transfers and NFL draft attrition.
Napier, whose Gators aim to take down the No 1-ranked Bulldogs at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, certainly took note of how Vanderbilt defended Beck.
Read more at DawgNation.com.