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Georgia’s national championship hopes took a hit on Monday.
The Bulldogs announced that starting quarterback Carson Beck will miss the remainder of the 2024 season after undergoing successful surgery to repair his right UCL.
Beck suffered the injury during the first half of the SEC Championship Game and was already expected to miss the College Football Playoff semifinal against Notre Dame on Jan. 1. Now, however, his season is officially over.
Beck was replaced by Gunner Stockton in the 22-19 overtime win against Texas in the SEC Championship Game, finishing 12-of-16 for 71 yards and an interception, taking two sacks.
Head coach Kirby Smart told reporters Monday that getting Stockton extra practice reps ahead of the Notre Dame matchup will be beneficial.
“He got lots of reps prior to these practices, but he’s getting much more now,” he said. “I do think knowing that when you get ready for an opponent like Notre Dame you need time. We haven’t known who we were going to play for you know, 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. You know, the situations we put him in, all those things allow him to get better as a quarterback.”
Beck, a senior, threw for 3,485 yards, 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season, completing 64.7 percent of his passes. It was a bit of a down year after his impressive 2023 campaign (3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns, six interceptions, 72.4 completion percentage), though he led Georgia to an SEC title and CFP berth after the Bulldogs missed out on the Playoff last season.
For Beck, the next stop is likely the NFL, where his floor as a draft prospect should be the second or third round. It wouldn’t be shocking if he was ultimately a first-round pick, though his 2024 season probably didn’t boost his draft stock and he’ll now likely lose out on participating in much of the pre-draft process outside of interviews.
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