ATHENS, Ga. — Quarterback Carson Beck of Georgia has never been accused of playing with a go-for-broke mentality or going all “Tin Cup” on the football field.
He even takes great satisfaction in being uninteresting. Indeed, dull.
“If you watch guys like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and some of the greats, during those moments when you just couldn’t stop them, it’s because they’re always in the right place with the ball at the right time,” Beck stated. “It wins football games, even though it can be monotonous to watch at times.
“Obviously, doing something amazing is cool, but my goal is to succeed. It’s also about pushing the ball down the field, gaining first downs, and throwing touchdowns when you have the caliber of talent that surrounds me at the University of Georgia. That’s the objective of the game, and even if it’s dull, I’ll still play.”
However, Beck also has a small gunslinger inside of him, whose rivalry burns brightly inside sometimes but not always. According to his longtime friend Brendon Quinn, Beck doesn’t hesitate to “go for the green” when the opportunity arises.
One such instance is from a few years back when they were playing golf at Quinn’s home course, Queen’s Harbour Yacht and Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. They reached the 17th hole, a 525-yard par-5 dogleg left that has a sizable water hazard approximately 260 yards from the tee box.
Beck drew his driver out nonchalantly. As he addressed his ball, he could as well have been positioned in the pocket, ready to launch a strike on a crossing route.
Quinn informed Beck, “You’ve got to go 300 yards to clear the water.”
Beck nodded and replied, “I know, but I’m going to hit driver and don’t really care where it goes.”
The ball shot off Beck’s club and disappeared.
“We’re all thinking it was a bad shot, that there’s no way it got over,” Quinn said. “Then we get on the other side of the water, and there it is sitting in the middle of the fairway, probably 310 yards. I’m like, ‘There’s literally no way he hit that ball,’ and he was like he always is — calm.
“Nothing ever gets to him, good or bad.”
For the record, Beck birdied the hole. He hit a 7-iron into the green and two-putted.
Once again, ho-hum. Fairways and greens. First downs and touchdowns.
“Carson’s been that person since he got here,” Georgia senior linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. said. “He’s always chill, always calm, always in control. The main thing is that he has confidence in himself, and he had that same confidence even before he played [here], before the whole world got to see him do it.”
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