In an ideal world, Carson Beck does his best Stetson Bennett IV imitation and leads Georgia to its third title in 4 years. Obviously.

That world might not exist. If it does exist, it doesn’t feel imminent. Not at this point.

Following Georgia’s second loss — the first time that happened in 4 years — there’s a question that lingers. What does UGA’s ideal QB situation look like after this? There might not be an ideal solution.

Until a few weeks ago, it felt obvious what post-2024 would look like. Carson Beck would go onto the NFL, become a first-round pick and UGA would have an offseason battle between Gunner Stockton, Jaden Rashada and Ryan Puglisi. That could still happen, but it doesn’t feel like the most likely scenario. At least not Beck becoming a first-round pick. His 12 interceptions through 9 games put a damper on what was supposed to be his final year at UGA.

There’s no denying that Beck’s 2024 season hurt his NFL Draft stock. What remains to be seen is how much it’s been hurt. How he plays down the stretch could have a large say in that.

For the sake of this discussion, what if Beck gets mid-round feedback? That could create an awkward scenario. Beck could go back to Smart and say that he wants to utilize his final year of eligibility. Don’t forget that because 2020 didn’t count against anyone and Beck stayed under the 4-game threshold in 2021, he has 1 more year of eligibility after the 2024 season.

Would Smart welcome a Beck return? Or would he say that Georgia won’t match his desired NIL price and that the Dawgs are moving on at QB? Nobody would’ve believed the latter would be a possible option in August. Things change.

What we know is that Beck has already thrown for more interceptions than any UGA starter under Smart (the previous high was Jacob Eason’s 8 interceptions as a true freshman starter in Year 1 back in 2016). Smart might not be one for a mid-game benching, but it doesn’t mean he’ll be at the mercy of Beck’s wishes beyond 2024.

That’s the other part of this. UGA doesn’t offer practice availability to the media, so publicly, there’s an extremely limited sample size of how developed the rest of the quarterback room is with Stockton, Rashada and Puglisi, who missed the spring game with a knee injury. None of them have played a meaningful snap in a Georgia uniform. Even Stockton, the current second-stringer, only appeared vs. FCS Tennessee Tech because for most of the season, UGA has been plagued by slow starts that limited potential garbage time reps.

All we can infer from Beck’s turnover issues and Smart’s loyalty to him is that he’s still heads and shoulders above the rest of the quarterback room in the eyes of his head coach.

But if those non-Beck options don’t sell Smart at season’s end, there’s an alternative scenario that could present itself. Could UGA go back to the portal like it did after Jake Fromm left for the NFL? Both Jamie Newman and JT Daniels came to compete in that QB battle, though Newman’s bizarre preseason opt-out/NFL Draft entry and Daniels’ injury prevented Smart from going away from the homegrown model.

Perhaps the market will force UGA to pursue multiple portal quarterbacks. Alternatively, perhaps the market won’t be what UGA hopes for and it’ll set the market itself with some, um … what’s a nice word for “tampering?” How about “coaxing” or “engaging.”

Am I suggesting that Georgia could try to handpick its next quarterback if it doesn’t like the available options? Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting, especially if Beck looks like the Achilles’ heel for UGA the rest of 2024.

I know, I know. Georgia leads FBS in drops. The transfers at receivers haven’t lived up to their billing and the Dawgs desperately miss Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey. If that part of the game isn’t figured out beyond 2024, it won’t matter how much “coaxing” UGA does to land its next starting quarterback.

But maybe the ideal future QB scenario for a title-less UGA team in 2024 (a key distinction) isn’t that complicated. It could be that Beck improves his decision-making, but it’s not enough to lead Georgia to a title. After coming up short, he goes to Smart and instead of asking what UGA will do for him to get him to stay, Beck says that he’s going to eliminate all off-field distractions and he’s going to be the best version of himself to finish things the right way.

Sure, that scenario might be met with skepticism from those of us who watched Beck regress in 2024. But it’s not the worst outcome to bring back a motivated, multi-year starter who was a preseason All-American a few months ago. If the mindset is right, Beck at his best can still be Georgia’s best option.

It remains to be seen if we’ll see the 2023 version of Beck surface for a full game in 2024. Or rather, a full meaningful game. So far, he’s been missing in action.

Georgia’s got bigger problems to focus on right now than what the QB hierarchy is in 2025. There’s no denying that.

But it’s because of those problems that it’s even a relevant discussion.