Nick Saban believes Carson Beck is benefiting from the increased talent Miami Hurricanes football coach Mario Cristobal provided him with, sharing the opinion on ESPN’s College GameDay while providing what Saban did to deter the former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback while he was still coaching the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“He is very comfortable, he’s very confident. Sometimes in the past, the big thing you wanted to do was make him move his feet that affected his accuracy. Now he has better players around him, and he is very comfortable in the pocket and confident in what he is doing in the offense. The guy plays smart, he is always well-prepared, and he is making a lot of good decisions,” Saban said.
Reading into it a bit, it’s clear Saban believes the talent Bulldogs head football coach Kirby Smart provided him with and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo were holding the Jacksonville, Florida, native back during his two years as QB1 in Athens.
Smart is the de facto general manager of his UGA football program. The talent around Beck, or the lack of talent around Beck to allow him to thrive, according to Saban, was recruited and onboarded by Smart.
Bobo was the play-caller for both of Beck’s starting seasons after Todd Monken and Stetson Bennett left the Bulldogs for the NFL.
Smart famously worked for Saban during the Crimson Tide’s most dynastic years in the early/mid-2000s. Bobo never worked for Saban, instead opposing him as Georgia’s offensive coordinator from 2007-2014 and again in 2022 and 2023, and as the Auburn Tigers’ offensive coordinator in 2021.
Saban probably didn’t mean to take a shot at UGA, but in talking up the U so strongly, the juxtaposition makes the Dawgs look bad.
We’ll see how Georgia responds when they play Alabama next Saturday Between the Hedges.