On day QB Carson Beck shines, Brock Vandagriff addresses his future with Georgia football

Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff stepped foot on the turf in Sanford Stadium Saturday for their third G-Days as Georgia football quarterbacks.

Never had they had so much to gain.

Neither was going to lock up the Bulldogs starting quarterback job on Saturday—at least publicly-but it was a big piece in the spring evaluation by coaches for a position that almost certainly won’t have a starter named until into August.

Beck only solidified his spot as the No. 1 quarterback that he entered the day with after having the best day of the quarterbacks.

He completed his first six passes and started 10 of 11 for 182 yards and finished the day 15 of 22 for 231 yards and a touchdown.

Beck’s approach was simple.

“Just have fun,” he said. “There’s nothing you need to really stress over. Just have fun, execute each play as it comes.”

Beck directed the first-team offense to scores on four of its first-half possessions against the first-team defense—three touchdowns on the first three drives and a field goal.

“I felt like everything was working,” Beck said. “(Mike) Bobo was really dialing it up. I just told him that after that he was dialing it up. We were executing, guys were getting open and we were catching balls and making plays.”

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Vandagriff was 13 of 25 for 175 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. The Prince Avenue Christian graduate was 4 of 11 with the pick for 40 yards with the first-team offense, all in the second half.

Coach Kirby Smart put some of the incompletions on his receivers.

"I thought both of them had good composure, good pocket presence,” he said. “I thought Brock used his legs several times to break out of there and take off running. Brock unfortunately had some guys drop the ball on him. I thought the balls were really well thrown and should've been caught. He did a nice job in the pocket of making those throws.”

Vandagriff, a former five-star recruit who originally committed to Oklahoma, fielded multiple questions afterwards about if he will consider transferring.

“To be completely honest, I haven’t thought about it much,” the redshirt sophomore said. “Just 15 practices I had to get better at. That’s where I’m at with that.”

Later, he was asked if he thinks he’ll definitely still be with the team come preseason.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I guess there’s some praying to do. My plans for now are just to take it day-by-day.”

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Gunner Stockton, the No. 3 quarterback, was 13 of 22 for 144 yards and an interception returned 21 yards for a touchdown by inside linebacker Raylen Wilson to help the Red team take a 31-26 victory.

Beck’s first half included a six-yard touchdown pass to Arian Smith and he did what coaches wanted to see—getting the balls in the hands of Georgia’s biggest playmakers in tight end Brock Bowers twice for 55 yards and Ladd McConkey on a 37-yard completion.

“Carson did the things today that he does at practice every day,” Smith said. “Nothing he did today surprised me.”

Beck, a redshirt junior, is a class ahead of Vandagriff, but his first season in 2020 didn’t include spring practices due to the pandemic and he served as backup to JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett during his three seasons.

Now the gig is there for the taking.

“There’s about 25 percent of the hay in the barn,” Smart said speaking generally. “There’s 75 percent of practices left. That includes our summer workouts and our fall camp workouts.”

Vandagriff started strong, completing 5 of 6 passes for 80 yards in the first half for the Black team. He threw on the run and rushed for 23 yards on two carries in the half.

He worked with the Red team in the second half, but on his first possession was picked off by Tykee Smith who leaped up to make catch intended for Missouri transfer Dominic Lovett. He seemed to have a little bit too much juice on a couple of throws including one to CJ Smith that was low.

“Overall, I think I had a pretty good spring,” Vandagriff said. “Just being able to build on each practice before and learn from the practices before. For today, I’m not sure what my numbers were but I feel like I was in the right place most of the time. I could have had a little better accuracy but that’s just me probably having some nerves. That was probably the most I’ve played in Sanford.”

Gunner Stockton, the No. 3 quarterback, looked like Bennett, who was at the game as the departing players received their 2022 national championship rings, on one play.

Stockton, the redshirt freshman, faked and scampered on the left side for a 4-yard touchdown run. He was 12 of 19 for 130 yards, all with the No. 2 offense against the No. 2 defense.

“What you saw today was similar to what we've seen all spring,” Smart said. “We have three really good quarterbacks that can make the throws and did a really good job."

Beck is in a different spot on the depth chart and in his mind after the spring.

“Confidence builds with reps and compared to my freshman year from now, my confidence has grown exponentially,” he said. “I only see it growing more.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia Bulldog QBs Carson Beck & Brock Vandagriff on G-Day, spring ball