University of Georgia Athletics

Quick Chat: Carson Beck
April 05, 2023 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Way back when he was an underclassman in high school, Carson Beck made his college decision. He and a buddy announced their commitments: they were going to Florida, to play baseball.
"We'd been playing baseball will each other since we were six or seven, so that was our dream, for both of us to go to Florida to play baseball," Beck, Georgia's redshirt sophomore quarterback, said after practice Tuesday.
Clearly, Beck's plans changed. First, he realized that his best sport, the one with the brightest future, was football. Second, the lifelong Gators fan from Jacksonville, a four-star prospect at quarterback, wanted to be a Bulldog.
The 6-foot-4 and 215-pound Beck enrolled in January 2020, redshirted the fall, played in a handful of blowout games off the bench during Georgia's run to the 2021 national championship, and did more of the same as Stetson Bennett's backup last season as the Bulldogs repeated as champions. In all in 2022, he played in seven games, completing 26 of 35 passes for 310 yards and four touchdowns.
Now, as the Bulldogs wrap up spring practice next Saturday, Beck is competing for Georgia's starting QB spot with Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton. After a couple of years in the background, Beck knows all eyes are on him and the other Georgia quarterbacks this spring.
During our Quick Chat, Beck talked about returning to the spotlight, his baseball days, growing up a Gator fan, his savvy Chipotle ordering strategy, and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:Â
Frierson: Tonight was your first time doing a news conference in a while, so what was that experience like?
Beck: I remember, the media stuff started to pick up in my junior year of high school. I never was the biggest fan of it, but personally, I feel like I'm good at it. I feel like I'm a good communicator, and that's what a quarterback is. You have to be a good communicator. I don't know, it was fun. I don't mind it.
Frierson: It's a weird thing in that you're getting a ton of attention in high school, and then you come to this elite program that has a big group of beat writers, yet you've spent the past couple of years mostly in the background.Â
Beck: I guess I didn't really miss it (the spotlight) because I don't particularly like being the center of attention. I'd rather be off on my own, but I embrace it.Â
Frierson: It looks like you were a good baseball player in high school. Was that ever the path that you thought you would follow?
Beck: My freshman or sophomore year of high school, I committed to Florida for baseball. Me and one of my best friends growing up (Colby Halter), that I played baseball with, he committed there first and then I followed. We'd been playing baseball will each other since we were six or seven, so that was our dream, for both of us to go to Florida to play baseball. Now, he's there, he's ballin'. We were going to do that together, but then football blew up. I don't know, it's just always been football for me.
Obviously, things haven't really gone the way that I planned, and nothing ever does. It's God's plan, and I'm just trying to believe in that and have faith in that, and just keep working my tail off.
Frierson: Does Stetson's career provide the perfect example of how, if you keep working, keep plugging away, every dream you ever had can still come true?
Beck: Oh, yeah. I just said that in there (the news conference), it truly is the perfect example. Watching how he was able to handle adversity and people counting him out — honestly, there's like a sense of, I don't care, I'm going to do this. I've watched it up close and, honestly, it is very motivating to me to watch him do it. It gives me faith and confidence that I can do it.
Frierson: Growing up in Jacksonville, was the Georgia-Florida game a big deal in your family?
Beck: Oh, at the time I was ...
Frierson: You were a Florida fan, weren't you?
Beck: [Laughs] Yeah. I did grow up a Gator fan. Some of our best friends, they're huge Gator fans, so I got lured in. Both of my parents are from up north, so they didn't really care. My dad went to the (U.S.) Naval Academy and my mom went to Maryland, so they weren't really fans of anybody down south. But we lived in Jacksonville, so we'd always go to the game.
Funny story, I was committed to Florida but wore Georgia stuff to the Georgia-Florida game [laughs].Â
Frierson: Because you were an unthinking teenager? What was the rationale behind that?
Beck: It's because I wanted to come to Georgia.
Frierson: What is something you could eat every day and never get tired of it?
Beck: Ooh, Chipotle. I think I do eat that every day.
Frierson: What is your go-to order?
Beck: Bowl, white rice, black beans, double steak, queso, pico, medium, cheese, lettuce, tortilla on the side.
Frierson: Do you use the tortilla at the end to clean up all the good stuff left in the bowl?
Beck: I eat it at the same time. If you get a burrito, they put everything in the tortilla, it's less food than if you get a bowl with a tortilla on the side. And it's only like 50 cents more.
Frierson: Who is the funniest guy on the team?
Beck: I'd have to say (linebacker) Rian Davis, for sure. He's just funny. I don't know how to explain it. He's not trying to be funny, it's just him. He says some really funny things.
Frierson: What do you do to get away from football and school?
Beck: I play video games. ... Other than that, I don't really do anything. I stay at the house and don't do much. I play a little golf. I haven't played in forever, though. I didn't start playing golf until I got here.
Frierson: If you could play any other sport for Georgia, what would it be?
Beck: Golf. Wait, and am I going to be good at the sport?
Frierson: You'll be good enough to play for Georgia, which means you're going to be really good.
Beck: Then it's golf. I think golf would be so fun to play competitively, but I'm not good enough to do that. You definitely have to have a time commitment, and it does get you away from everything.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.