"Kirby makes it challenging": Carson Beck once revealed how Georgia molded him to embrace pressure 

Despite the pressure, Carson Beck has looked as poised as any quarterback in college football in the last few weeks and Kirby Smart may have something to do with it. As we approach the SEC Championship game, we look back at what the Georgia Bulldogs quarterback said last year about pressure and how the program shapes players.

When asked about the pressure of quarterbacking the two-time defending national champions in a news conference in August 2023, Beck gave a response on how his head coach has helped mold a culture.

“I definitely embrace it (the pressure), you know. Kirby makes it super challenging in practice. He applies pressure every single day, our defense applies pressure.

“Obviously there is pressure, there is always gonna be pressure, but I think we do a good job of putting ourselves in situations where once we do get out on the field, it’s just like another day in practice”

Beck and Georgia have answered the call

Carson Beck and Georgia failed to win a third-straight championship as they were shut out of the College Football Playoff in 2023 after an undefeated regular season and a loss in the SEC Championship game to Alabama. They did, however, respond after adversity hit in the middle of the 2024 season.

After a loss to Ole Miss put the Bulldogs at 7-2, the pressure ratcheted up quickly in Athens. Up to that point, Beck’s performance had been underwhelming with three 3-interception games.

Just when the pressure seemed to be at its highest point, Beck and the Bulldogs turned things around. In the three games after the loss to the Rebels, Beck passed for 941 yards, 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. Georgia won all three contests and secured a spot in the SEC Championship game.

In last Saturday's win over Georgia Tech, with Georgia's back against the wall after falling behind by 17 points at halftime, Beck threw four second-half touchdowns, and two more in overtime to get a thrilling 44-42 victory.

Smart addressed the difficulty of playing multiple overtimes in the press conference after Saturday’s game, and how Beck and the rest of the team answered to adversity.

“It seemed like every time somebody failed, they had to go again. I don’t know why, it seemed like we failed, we had to go again and get over that, Then they failed, and they had to go again. There’s the back to back. It was a battle of adversity.

“The hardest thing to do right after you fail on defense or offense, yo got to go back out there and change ends”

What has been Smart’s impact in Georgia and with Beck

A former assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama, Smart possesses a similar coaching style. He centers around discipline and consistency and has been able to turn Georgia into a powerhouse with two national titles in the last three years.

Georgia is the only team to finish in the top 7 of the AP Poll every year in the last seven seasons, with the possibility to make it eight straight. While it’s easy to see them as a powerhouse now, it wasn’t always the case.

Before Smart arrived in Athens in 2016, the Bulldogs hadn’t won a national championship since 1980 in Herschel Walker’s breakout season. They had not won an SEC title since 2005.