Ex-Georgia Athlete Urges Gunner Stockton to Learn From Carson Beck’s Past as Kirby Smart Makes Intentions Clear

Moving into the 2025 season, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs need to fill a major gap. They lost their quarterback, Carson Beck, to the Miami Hurricanes. Beck threw an SEC-high 12 interceptions while also having some critical fumbles and misses along the way. The burden fell on his successor, Gunner Stockton, to correct these mistakes. The Bulldogs are coming off an awkward win of 28-6 against Austin Peay. On the other hand, Beck’s new team scored a big 45-3 win over the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, and the quarterback had a big role to play in it. That’s when the Georgia alum, Charlie Hegedus, urged Stockton to study Beck’s journey.

Smart’s former wide receiver Hegedus re-tweeted a post by LSU alum Breiden Feheko. The original post had Smart’s former quarterback throwing his first touchdown of his Week 2 game. The caption read, “I keep telling folks on this app QB1. You better buy stock on Carson Beck. I been watching undeveloped QB play all day. This is what it looks like.” Resharing the tweet, Hegedus came up with his own take. He wrote, “There’s a reason Carson Beck had a Lambo and Gunner is in a 1980 pick up.  Ya’ll about crucified me last year blaming poor WR play and not putting blame on Beck.  Hopefully GS figures it out before next week.” 

Beck has hit the ground running in Coral Gables. He broke Vinny Testaverde’s 1986 Miami record of 14 consecutive completions by throwing 15 straight in Week 2. Over the course of the game, he completed 22 of 24 passes for 267 yards, and threw a pair of touchdown passes. The Miami QB went off as an indomitable force as he connected with CJ Daniels in the corner of the end zone, extending the Hurricanes’ advantage to 28-3 heading into the break.

Meanwhile Smart’s current quarterback wrapped up the evening with a completion percentage of 76.47%, passing for 227 yards and no touchdowns. Hegedus calls Beck a “Lambo,” meaning as a Lamborghini he represents speed, refinement, and top-tier quality. On the other hand, Stockton is a 1980 Pickup, which is useful, but it’s clunky, outdated, and lacks the smoothness or flash of a Lamborghini. Even though Beck bore the fans’ blows last season, Hegedus claims he was not the problem, the wide receivers were. While Stockton is asked not to break his morale, another Georgia alum is already disappointed with him.    

Kirby Smart takes his QB’s side after Gunner Stockton disappoints a Georgia alum

Stockton has already put down the Georgia legend, former Bulldogs All-American and three-time All-SEC standout David Pollack. After Smart and co.’s not-so-great win over Austin Peay, the former player turned analyst took to his podcast to share his thoughts. That’s when Stockton got some criticism. “I got some opinions that Georgia fans aren’t going to like,” stated Pollack.

He continued, “The passing attack does not look good. It does not look in sync. The weapons look fine, but the connection I’m seeing it with Gunner, seeing it and delivering it, is not there yet.” But being the head coach, it’s Smart’s duty to keep his program together.

Coach Smart became one of the biggest spokespersons for Stockton, standing with a big defensive shield. “Well, I actually need to see what he does in practice in the game. That’s the biggest thing, because we took a lot of periods last week to do throwing periods with rush, and do pressure pass periods–where you have to play in the pocket and win [from] the pocket. We did a lot of that last week in practice–a lot of play action shots…He did a really nice job of those things all week. He’s just got to continue to grow and get better, and get comfortable with it,” shared the Bulldogs head coach.  

Maybe that’s Kirby Smart’s way of coping with a win that does not feel like a win. After all, no one was expecting Austin Peay to provide much of a challenge for the Bulldogs. That too, after their dominant week one against Marshall.