JACKSONVILLE – Surrounded by a throng of media inside the bowels of EverBank Stadium, the smile never left Carson Beck’s face.

After quarterbacking the Bulldogs to a 43-20 win over the arch-rival Gators, this one felt good.

“I’ve been waiting for this for four years, since the second I got here,” Beck said. “I knew one day I was probably going to play in this game. It was obviously a lofty dream and goal that I had when I was growing up. To come out there and do that, execute like that as a team, it doesn’t get any better.”

Wide receiver Ladd McConkey vouched for that.

“I think everyone knew how much this game meant to him,” McConkey said. “He let us know before the game that this was personal, and he stepped up and played phenomenal.”

The game also marked the fourth-straight 300-plus yard game for Beck, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 315 and two touchdowns.

Kirby Smart said he was never worried about Beck’s nerves being a problem.

Per the Bulldog head coach, he looked like the same old Beck to him.

"I don’t worry about Carson; apparently you guys do. But I don’t worry about Carson,” Smart said. “He’s very confident, he’s very calm, he understands football, he’s never too high, never too low. He studies really hard. He texts questions all week. He studies and meets with Coach (Mike) Bobo. He puts a plan together and he makes good decisions. He’s continued to improve by not putting us in bad situations.”

It's not all about the stats, either.

“There are things that are not on the stat sheet that I don’t have time to explain, but he does an elite job with run checks, looks, puts in the best play, the decision to throw the RPO or hand the ball off,” Smart said. “There’s not really a value you can put on that. I know as a defensive coordinator there’s nothing worse than feeling you have the right call, then he moves the back, he moves the tight end, and you get a bad call. That’s tough."

After falling behind 7-0, Beck quickly brought the Bulldogs back. Following a short field goal by Peyton Woodring, Beck connected with McConkey for a 41-yard touchdown and a 10-7 lead.

The Bulldogs never looked back.

“I told people this offense, I mean, it's not built around one player. I mean, since Bobo was here before and had success offensively, and Todd Monken was here and had success offensively, it's not built around one player,” Smart said. “It's really built around the defense. That's the beauty of it is that you don't have to have just one guy. Brock is certainly extremely valuable because you can scheme plays to make him the guy. Well, today they were plays we'd run with (Brock) Brock that was just somebody else in those spots.

With no Bowers, McConkey became the target of choice. He did not disappoint.

McConkey tied a career-high with six catches for 135 yards and one touchdown.

The junior wasn’t the only receiver having a big day.

Missouri transfer Dom Lovett had four catches for 83 yards. Nine different Bulldogs caught passes in the game.

“Having the bye week of preparation and having those two weeks to kind of game plan some of this stuff was big,” Beck said. “Obviously, they are a great team on third down, and we had to come up with a play.