ATHENS, Ga. — It’s not ideal for teams to lose football games, but it happens. It’s much less ideal to try to clean up two viral moments from that loss.
Or to field a question about whether to change quarterbacks. Just in case anyone’s wondering how things are going with the Georgia football team, which makes Saturday’s showdown with Tennessee so important.
Win, and all is OK, full steam ahead to the College Football Playoff.
Lose, and the narrative on this season is all but set, not in a good way.
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The first viral moment: Carson Beck, starting and beleaguered quarterback, was spotted smiling on the bench as he spoke with backup quarterback Jaden Rashada during the fourth quarter of Georgia’s 28-10 loss to Ole Miss, the Bulldogs’ largest margin of defeat in five years. The visual was seized on as a symbol of what’s wrong with Beck and perhaps the entire team.
The optics were poor but out of context: Harlen Rashada, Jaden’s father, posted, showing the moment before, Beck not smiling, Jaden Rashada telling him something that made him laugh. Thus the viral moment.
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (15) has thrown 12 interceptions in the past six games. (Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)
“I’m sure there have been countless times Carson has picked up Jaden,” Harlen Rashada wrote. “So this brings joy to my heart to see the bond of two elite competitors holding strong in a moment of defeat. That’s real brotherhood.”
One of Beck’s teammates, guard Dylan Fairchild, backed Beck up when asked about it Monday.
“You can’t mope around. I don’t know what people want him to do,” Fairchild said. “I’m happy that he’s positive.”
The second viral moment: Backup safety Jake Pope was spotted celebrating on the field with Ole Miss fans after the game. It turned out it was a childhood friend of Pope’s he hadn’t seen in years, but when Kirby Smart was asked about it on Monday, his thoughts were clear.
“What an idiot. I mean just stupid,” Smart said. “I didn’t see it till today. But he’s embarrassed about it. He’s upset about it. … Just not real smart, but to be honest with you, I don’t have time to waste energy on that.”
Smart was not asked about Beck’s viral moment, but the coach was asked about whether he has considered playing another quarterback. That question was shot down in Shermanesque fashion.
“Absolutely not,” Smart said. “We’ve got the quarterback we’ve got, who’s completely confident and capable and understanding of our system and gives us the best chance to win.”
And there you go. And here we are, with Georgia about to play what is now the most important game of its season. You may now insert your “everything is fine” meme.
But everything may be fine. Everything gets magnified when teams lose, especially like Georgia just did, during a season it has not often passed the eye test. But this team is still very much alive for the Playoff, and the context of what has happened so far cannot be ignored.
The schedule has been brutal: four road games, three of them at night against teams good enough to make long Playoff runs. Georgia has played only three home games, a neutral-site game against another ranked team and a neutral-site game against a rival that almost went down to the wire. It has been a grind that has taken its toll, mentally and physically. This is a banged-up and exhausted team.
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The offense has not been great, sitting ninth in the SEC in yards per play. But it has played defenses that rank first (Texas), third (Ole Miss), fifth (Alabama) and sixth (Auburn) in the SEC. And those first three games were all on the road, as was Kentucky, where crowd noise often (but not always) makes things harder on offenses, especially one like Georgia that relies on checking into plays and protection schemes at the line.
“We’ve played some really good teams,” Smart said. “But I would be remiss if I would say that we’re happy with where we are. We’re not happy with where we are.”
The offensive line has been patchwork, with the best (guard Tate Ratledge) missing four games with a high ankle sprain and returning in limited fashion the past two games. Center Jared Wilson missed two games, guard Micah Morris has missed a couple, and left tackle Earnest Greene is playing through a shoulder injury.
But some have just not played well, period.
The running back situation has been as much a mess: Trevor Etienne has been limited the past two games with a rib injury. The two most physical runners, Roderick Robinson and Branson Robinson, are out, the former not playing at all this season. Freshman Nate Frazier has been dynamic but has ball security and pass protection issues.
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The wide receiver issues have been less about injuries — although sophomore Anthony Evans is out — than off-field issues. The dismissal of Rara Thomas and indefinite suspension of Colbie Young has loomed large, as both were good outside receivers who could give Beck a safety valve.
That said, Beck’s play has regressed. The easy excuse is he wasn’t focused during the offseason, between his Lamborghini, his personal life or whatever. Beck told me in the spring he wasn’t working any less, he was just taking time to enjoy life after four years of working hard, which he certainly had earned. But he wouldn’t be the first young athlete to enjoy life, and plenty still thrive on the field. It also feels off to tie the offensive troubles to Beck’s leadership abilities or lack thereof. He’s never been a rah-rah quarterback — Stetson Bennett wasn’t either, by the way — and the offense was humming last year when Beck was starting.
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The difference may have been the leaders around him. Nobody appears to have filled the void left by center Sedrick Van Pran. There isn’t an obvious alpha personality on that side of the ball the way this year’s defense has Jalon Walker.
But the defense shouldn’t be absolved of blame, either. It came up huge in the wins over Texas and Clemson but gave up big plays at Ole Miss, started badly against Alabama and generally has been inconsistent, ranking eighth in the SEC in defensive yards per play. It’s not like a great defense is being wasted. It’s that a ton of talent on defense isn’t playing to its potential.
But there’s still time. For the team in general.
In the wide scope of this season, going 10-2 with this schedule is perfectly acceptable, no matter how it looked getting there. The focus then moves to how Georgia does in the Playoff, where pressure still waits, but the minimum threshold of making the dance has been hit.
Missing the Playoff, meanwhile, would in the kindest interpretation mean that Georgia was just a flawed team undone by a brutal schedule. The harsher takeaway would be that the schedule exposed what was not a good team and the program has work to do this offseason to get back to elite status.
Even then, perspective is needed. This is a program that has won two of the past three national championships, then fell short but still went 13-1. If anyone has earned leeway to slip it’s Georgia. If any coach has shown he can adapt and make needed changes, it’s Smart. Panicky fans need to touch the grass.
They may feel a lot better after Saturday. Through these years of winning Smart has loved to say that “humility is a week away.” Well, the humility is here. But so is the very quick chance for redemption.
(Top photo of Kirby Smart: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
