Kirby Smart disagrees with the narrative about UGA's quarterbacks
Kirby Smart disagrees with the notion that there’s a discernable difference in the games of his three quarterbacks vying for the starting job.
In his opinion, Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, and Gunner Stockton are more alike than not.
Saturday, Smart took great issue with a question that suggested whether the running ability of Vandagriff and Stockton called for a more diverse set of plays than Beck, the presumed favorite to win the starting job.
"I think the first part of that question, I would disagree with. I don't know how diverse it is,” Smart said. “You may feel that way or someone outside might feel that way, but I don't really see any of our three quarterbacks run.”
Per Smart, the reason is simple.
“Obviously, I didn't see Stetson (Bennett) that way. Could Stetson run? Yeah, but we didn't design runs. Maybe a few in the red area, but we didn't design runs,” Smart said. “We don't really want our quarterback physically getting hit. Your question makes it sound like there are certain guys we're going to have run packages for and certain guys we probably wouldn't. Not the case.”
Just because they’re not looking to run doesn’t mean the three aren’t athletes. Quite the contrary.
Beck, Vandagriff, and Stockton have plenty of athleticism to play the position the way that Smart and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo prefer.
“Can one of them maybe run a little better than another? Maybe a little bit, but these three guys are all really good athletes. I don't know how diverse or how all three are really different. They're all really more of the same than they are different,” Smart said. “If you line them up in the 40 (yard dash), one might be a little faster than the other. One might be a little more instinctive in the pocket than the other. One might be just a better runner at reading blocks because he ran better in high school. I don't see them that different, and we will not have an extensive quarterback-run package. We're just going to give the ball to our (running) backs and we're going to put the ball in our skill players."
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