Former Georgia QB Carson Beck prepares for Miami debut

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — It was Sunday, Dec. 7, the day after the Southeastern Conference championship game had ended with Georgia the winner in overtime and Bulldogs starting quarterback Carson Beck sidelined by injury.

Beck got an MRI that morning to figure out what was wrong with his arm, then watched the College Football Playoff selection show and saw the Bulldogs, seeded second and the recipient of a first-round bye in the 12-team bracket, would meet No. 7 Notre Dame or No. 10 Indiana in a national quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans the following month.

His mood picked up. For a moment, at least.

“I was like, ‘My gosh, we’ve got a real shot at this,'” Beck said. “And then I walked into the training room.”

After five years, his Georgia career was over. There were about a half-dozen people waiting for him, all with blank stares on their faces, to reveal the MRI results: His elbow was a mess and surgery was needed.

Everyone in that room also knew Beck wasn’t coming back to Georgia for 2025. Going into this year’s NFL draft no longer was a smart option either, not with him needing surgery.

Fast-forward a few weeks: Beck signed with Miami for one final college season, with the Jacksonville native returning to his home state.

The Hurricanes took a leap of faith because of his elbow. Beck took a leap of faith that Miami could do for him what it did for Cam Ward in 2024. And — in some irony that isn’t lost on Beck — it’s Notre Dame waiting as his next opponent after all, with the sixth-ranked Fighting Irish set to visit the 10th-ranked Hurricanes in a much-hyped opener Sunday night.

“I remember that day, after the MRI, I left the offices and literally sat in the car for like four hours,” Beck said. “I mean, it was terrible. One of the worst times of my life, one of worst days of my life, finding that out. I didn’t know what it was going to look like after that. Thankfully, it’s all worked out in my favor, and I was blessed with this opportunity to come down here to Miami.”

The Hurricanes feel equally blessed. Ward spent one season in Miami, his fifth in a college career that began with two seasons in the Football Championship Subdivision at Incarnate Word and were followed by two at Washington State as he moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision.

He watched his stock rise from being someone generally considered to be a mid-draft prospect to the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL, selected by the Tennessee Titans this past April after a season in which he rewrote the Miami record book. He left the school as its single-season leader in yards, completions (305), touchdown passes (39) and completion percentage both for a season and a career at .672.

Now it’s Beck’s turn. He has thrown for 7,426 yards over the last two years, the most of any player still in major college football. He was part of back-to-back national title teams at Georgia in the 2021 and 2022 seasons while backing up Stetson Bennett IV, has been in the pressure cookers of the SEC and knows all about the spotlight.

“It didn’t take very long to see that the kid’s football IQ is probably as high as I’ve been around,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “You know, just the things that he talks about in football … the way his mind works football-wise is off the chart.”

Notre Dame watched a ton of Beck footage last year before facing Georgia in New Orleans, then had this whole offseason to get ready to see Beck with Miami.

“Carson Beck is as experienced, talented, played in big games, as anybody we’ll see, and as any quarterback in the country,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “We obviously evaluated him tremendously last year as we got ready for Georgia. And he is an extremely good quarterback and makes good decisions, fast decisions.”

Beck is convinced he made another good decision by choosing Miami.

The adjustment wasn’t easy at first. Beck was on the field for spring practices but couldn’t throw while his elbow was healing; he was building relationships and getting mental reps, but he wasn’t cleared for passes until shortly after the sessions ended.

He had two of his cars — a Lamborghini and a Mercedes — stolen shortly after arriving in Miami and was in a brief relationship with former Hurricanes women’s basketball player Hanna Cavinder, one that got tons of traction on social media, where she and her twin sister Haley are sensations.

“I try to stay level-headed,” Beck said. “I don’t really ride the roller coaster. The roller coaster is there, but I’m not on it.”

Teammates rave about his work ethic. Coaches say he’s an exemplary student of the game. Friends say he is a vicious competitor, even when he’s just playing golf, cards or video games.

And there is a chip on his shoulder, a feeling that he still has things to prove even after throwing for nearly 8,000 yards and helping the Buldogs go 33-3 in the games where he threw a pass. He struggled at times last season, making him the subject of tons of criticism among the Georgia faithful. The ending — getting hurt in the SEC championship game and knowing that it was time to move on — was painful both physically and emotionally.

“He’s human. I mean, even if you don’t read the stuff, you can still feel everything, and he had a pretty gnarly three or four months there,” said Beck’s longtime quarterback trainer, Denny Thompson. “I just think that chip grew bigger and bigger and bigger. He’s already got it naturally, but now it’s kind of been put on steroids a little bit.”

Miami wants him to play with that chip. It worked for Ward last season. The Hurricanes aren’t comparing Beck to Ward, but there are obvious similarities in the confident way that they play and how they picked Miami with hopes of being the guy who leads the school back into the national title picture after contending for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game but missing out on that and the CFP.

“I want to be the best, to be honest,” Beck said. “I just have a fire inside of me that needs to be fueled, and if I’m not the best then what am I doing? I don’t want to just be good. I don’t want to be great. I want to be the best of anybody that’s out there.”