Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart made a quick appearance on ESPN's College GameDay ahead of the first College Football Playoff game of the season featuring 7-seed Notre Dame and 10-seed Indiana. During this interview, Smart spoke a lot about his team's preparations for their upcoming game on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl and even took a shot at Notre Dame fans yelling in the background.
But to likely no one's surprise, the GameDay crew asked Smart about the status of Carson Beck heading into the playoff. So what did Smart say? Absolutely nothing.
To be fair, Smart did speak a little bit about what Beck is dealing with, but he did not answer the question asked about what his availability looks like.
“He and his family down in Jacksonville, his team and staff and really group of people in his family have been trying to pursue the best options to go forward,” Smart shared via dawgnation.com. “We’ve talked to him. We’ve communicated with him, and we’re hoping for the best.”
No expectation for a return this season
Pete Thamel with On3 reported on Thursday that Georgia is preparing to play the entire CFP without Beck. So it is quite interesting that the GameDay crew chose to ask Smart about Beck less than 24 hours after this report came out. But even more interesting is the fact that Smart chose not to speak on Beck's availability going forward.
There is still likely no chance that Beck plays in the College Football Playoff this season, especially in their first game on Jan. 1. But this interview from Smart does make it seem like there is at least a slim chance Beck could return.
The reason Smart did this likely was to keep opposing teams guessing on who could be starting for Georgia in future games. So even though it seems nearly impossible that Beck will start at any point during the CFP, the more doubt Smart can put in the heads of other coaches the better.
But for Beck to have any chance at playing the in the future, Georgia has to win their quarterfinal matchup in about two weeks. So hopefully UGA will do just that, that way they can keep their National Championship hopes alive this season.