Grading Carson Beck’s performance in Georgia’s Week 2 win over Tennessee Tech

Georgia’s 48-3 Week 2 win over Tennessee Tech wasn’t quite as impressive as its 34-3 Week 1 demolition of Clemson. However, Carson Beck was much more prolific against the FCS opponent in the Bulldog’s home opener at Sanford Stadium, and with his program-record-tying five touchdown passes, the potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft helped his Heisman Trophy candidacy. 

Kirby Smart’s team was expected to take care of business against Tennessee Tech and while there isn’t a ton to glean from this performance, maybe the best sign for the Bulldogs was that Beck and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo didn’t take a half to warm up the offense. Instead, Georgia jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead and by the middle of the third quarter, Beck handed the reins over to backup Gunner Stockton. 

The team was nearly perfect, but let’s put a grade on Beck’s performance in Georgia’s Week 2 win over Tennessee Tech. 

A week ago against Clemson, Bobo made things easy for Beck with plenty of screens and lots of play-action. In Week 2, the schedule made things easy for Beck, and while he wasn’t playing on the highest difficulty, that doesn’t take away from how well the senior quarterback played. 

Beck finished 18/25 for 242 yards and five touchdowns. His first pass of the game was a 22-yard touchdown to Dillon Bell in the left corner of the end zone, a quality throw, but to a relatively wide-open receiver who beat double-coverage. 

A few of those program-record-tying touchdown tosses were sheerly due to his offense's overwhelming talent advantage, like his 50-yard throw to Arian Smith who was 10 yards clear of any Tennessee Tech defender. The throw actually slowed Smith up and could have caused an incompletion or at least stopped a touchdown against SEC defenders. 

There were, however, a few moments when it feels fair to evaluate Beck against a team of Tennessee Tech’s caliber, third down. Georgia only went 4/9 on third down in the game, but with Beck on the field, the offense converted three of its five third downs. On those downs, Beck completed two of his three attempts for 23 yards and a touchdown with a sack and a nine-yard scramble for a first. 

The two third-down completions were arguably Beck’s most impressive. Facing 3rd-and-11 up 7-0 with 8:49 left in the first quarter, Beck was well protected from a four-man rush, reached the top of his drop, and hitched to the outside receiver, Smith, to the wide side of the field, then fired back over the middle to Oscar Delp for 13 yards and a conversion. It was expert-level quarterbacking to manipulate a defense on a money-down. 

Later, on 3rd-and-8 from the Tennessee Tech 10-yard line with just over a minute left in the first half, Beck feels his right tackle being driven into his space, so he climbs the pocket with his eyes downfield and runs parallel to the line of scrimmage until Dominic Lovett can work back to the football in the right corner of the end zone. Beck hits Lovett for a touchdown instead of attempting to run when he likely would’ve been stopped short of the line to gain. 

Beck’s feel and aggressiveness on third down display the value of his years of experience in Athens and is the huge reason he’s considered a first-round talent by most NFL evaluators. He was far from perfect in Week 2 and could’ve put up even bigger numbers if he was a bit more precise, but when he needed it, Beck was excellent. 

Here are all of Beck’s completions from Week 2: