Opposing Quarterback Spotlight: Georgia's Carson Beck is playing as well as any quarterback in the country
Brent Key led his program to victory last Saturday and that victory gave Georgia Tech bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018. The Yellow Jackets have had their ups and downs this season, but getting to a bowl game was one of the goals of the season for the Yellow Jackets.
The other is beating their arch-rival, who happens to be the No. 1 team in the country. Just ask Key, who has won
"The feeling of winning that game and receiving the Governor's trophy, to be able to... I have one in my office now, I want guys to see that and I want them to know what that is, I want them to understand the importance of this game. It is not just another game. When you come into the season, there is two goals. There is a goal to go to the bowl game and there is a goal to beat Georgia. We don't come out and openly talk about what our goals are. That is why last week I began to talk about a bowl game because it is time to talk about it and now it is time to talk about another goal and that is to beat Georgia. Is your goal to win every football game? Yeah, it is to win every game, but our true team goals are to go to a bowl game and to beat Georgia.
I said it in my opening press conference a year ago. We will work every day to beat the team on the other side of the state and that is what we have done."
To accomplish that goal, Georgia Tech is going to have to slow down a quarterback who is playing as well as any in the country.
Carson Beck is one of the top quarterbacks in the country
It is not easy to take over for a quarterback who won two national championships and is a legend. Stetson Bennett set the bar pretty high for quarterbacks at Georgia, but it is hard to not look at what Carson Beck is doing right now and not be impressed.
Beck is 7th nationally with 3, 320 yards and has a 72.9% completion percentage to go along with 21 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He had to deal with his top target (Brock Bowers) missing time, but that did not stop Beck and this offense.
Key acknowledged that Georgia has playmakers all over their offense and made sure to mention how well Beck is playing:
"I am usually pretty quick-witted... put three guys on him, I don't know. Put one person on him and cross your fingers and hope things don't happen. We will put a game plan together, they have a lot of explosive players on their offense, they have a quarterback that is doing a heck of a job this season, playing as good as anyone in the country right now. They generate explosives with a lot of different players, he is not just the only one. I think they have 40+ explosive plays over 20 yards this year, 48 if I am not mistaken in the passing game.
They have two running backs that are very quick and efficient runners, running backs that can take it the distance at any time, they can condense sets and be able to play bully ball and able to spread you out and go different motions and unbalanced and they have a really good play-action game so if you just focus on one person, you are really going to leave yourself open all over so it will be a big challenge for us this week."
Brock Bowers will be a top option for Carson Beck on Saturday
Beck is the third-highest-graded quarterback in the country on PFF (Pro Football Focus) with a 91.5 grade. He is only behind LSU's Jayden Daniels and Oregon's Bo Nix.
For a Georgia Tech defense that is last in the ACC in yards per game allowed and 8th in passing yards allowed per game, this will be their biggest challenge of the season.
Georgia Tech has faced some good quarterbacks this year like North Carolina's Drake Maye, Louisville's Jack Plummer, and Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, but Beck is playing on a different level right now. The Yellow Jackets are going to need to force Beck to make mistakes and find a way to put pressure on him. No team has been able to do that this season, but Georgia Tech in certain games has been able to. Against Miami and Wake Forest, the Yellow Jackets forced multiple turnovers and it was the main reason they won. Now, Georgia is much better than those teams, but it is still a top priority for this defense.
Beck is making big time throws, playing with confidence, and looks as comfortable as ever in this offense. It is on Georgia Tech's defense to come up with a plan to stop him.
Georgia Tech vs Georgia will kick off on Saturday at 7:30 on ABC.
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