Kirby Smart Talks New QB, Notre Dame Defense

Marcus Freeman said he didn’t expect too much to change in Georgia’s offense with backup quarterback Gunner Stockton replacing Carson Beck for the Sugar Bowl matchup on New Year’s Day, which also doubles as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal between Notre Dame and the Bulldogs.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart pretty much acknowledged his counterpart was correct when he was asked about Stockton’s potential to run more than Beck. 

"I think we are who we are in regards to that,” Smart told reporters. “I mean, we've played an entire season offensively. Gunner's a good athlete. I think Carson's a good athlete. It's one of those deals that I don't know how much that changes things."

Beck suffered an elbow injury on the final play of the first half during the Bulldogs’ last outing, the SEC Championship Game against Texas. Beck’s long-term future in terms of whether and when he gets surgery and/or whether he returns to Athens next year or heads to the NFL Draft remains unclear.

"The only thing I can update is that they're still going through those deliberations in terms of decision-making, process time,” Smart said. 

“All the kinds of decisions they have to make as a family."

But Beck’s absence for next Wednesday’s game is certain. 

Taking over for the entire second half against Texas, Stockton completed 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards, leading Georgia to a 22-19 overtime victory. Ironically, it was Beck who took the game’s final snap after Stockton had to leave the game following a crushing hit that knocked his helmet off.

It’s not exactly clear whether that blow impacted any of Stockton’s preparation leading up to the next game, but Smart did say Stockton’s rep count has gone up with Beck out. 

"He got lots of reps prior to these practices, but he's getting much more now,” Smart said.

Smart also allowed that there was a bit of uncertainty regarding whether they should be preparing for the Irish or Indiana prior to last Friday’s First Round game between the two.

“I do think knowing that when you get ready for an opponent like Notre Dame, you need time,” Smart said. “We haven't known who we were going to play - I guess now what, 24-48 hours we've known, 72 hours.

“There's certainly a lot of time in prep you can do to prepare for that. We prepared for some of that prior to that because we knew it would be within two opponents. I think the biggest thing is just the competition at practice, the situations we put him in, all those things allow him to get better as a quarterback."

Now that they know the opponent, the Bulldogs have been preparing Stockton and his backup, true freshman Ryan Puglisi, for Al Golden’s impressive unit.

"They play great defense. They have a great pass rush. They're physical up front. They affect the pass rush with how hard they play, and they’ve got really good defensive backs. I mean, they play man-to-man. They get up on you, put their hands on you. You can tell it's a great brand of football between Coach Golden and Coach Freeman have done a great job. They play really good football."