Carson Beck took the podium at ACC Media Days on Tuesday as he prepares for a fresh start with the Miami Hurricanes. Last year was an underwhelming season for the quarterback, ultimately ending in the most disappointing way with an injury during the SEC Championship that required surgery.
Beck’s 2024 season was not bad by any standards but certainly did not live up to the hype going into the season. He was the headline name in the sport as a Heisman frontrunner and the highest rated QB in the EA Sports NCAA Football video game. Obviously, things did not go as planned, but Beck seems comfortable with his decision to move on from Georgia and head to Miami calling it “one of the better decisions he’s made”.
While Beck, who self admittedly has been “100% for a while now”, is one of the top QB’s in the ACC entering this season, there is no question he faces a massive challenge in filling some of the biggest shoes in college football. He replaced Cam Ward, who single-handedly brought the Hurricanes back to relevance with his electrifying play that earned him a spot as a Heisman finalist. While I do not believe Beck can carry a team the way Ward did last season, if he can be the guy he was once thought to be, the Hurricanes will be in a good spot.
One of the most notable quotes from the Hurricanes’ appearance at ACC Media Days came from head coach Mario Cristobal. During an appearance on The Joe Rose Show Cristobal pointed out how, “last year at this time - Carson Beck was the projected number one quarterback in the draft and Cam Ward was the fifth-round projection.”
While early NFL Draft projections are pointless and rarely accurate, Cristobal’s point highlights just how unpredictable and volatile college football can be. To put this in terms of the 2025 season: imagine Garrett Nussmeier having a disappointing year that leads him to return to college (somehow granted another year of eligibility in this hypothetical), while John Mateer has a historic season and ends up being the No. 1 overall pick.
One thing we can take away from this, is that guys can rise and fall from out of nowhere in college football. Carson Beck will be one of those looking to rise back to where he once was, in what is a major bounce-back opportunity season, coming off an injury and now leading a new team.