Carson Beck disappointed in his two seasons at Georgia, failing to reach the College Football Playoff in 2023 before suffering a season-ending injury last season in the SEC Championship game.
But it has all been worth it for the sixth-year senior and first-year Miami quarterback, as he led the Hurricanes to the national championship game with a game-winning drive to beat Ole Miss 31-27. It was a storybook ending to the Fiesta Bowl for Beck, who ran untouched for a 3-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left.
Now he’ll play his final collegiate game at Miami’s home stadium of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, against the winner of Indiana and Oregon.
‘It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,’ he said postgame on the ESPN broadcast. ‘I’m so proud of this team. We never flinched. I mean, in the face of adversity when we had to respond, we responded. We never gave up. I looked to the guys on the sideline, and you could just see it in their eyes.
‘We all had a good feeling that what happened was about to happen.’
Beck completed 23-of-37 passes for 268 yards with two touchdowns and an interception against the Rebels, also rushing for a score. He was 6-for-11 passing for 49 yards on the final drive, converting twice on third down.
Beck said he gathered his teammates before the final drive of the game to set the tone for the game-winning score.
‘I told them, ‘We got three minutes for the rest of our life,” he said on the broadcast. ‘No (expletive) else matters. … Nothing else matters, we got three minutes to go through this. I mean, everything we’ve worked for since January, everything we’ve been through, all the adversity that we’ve faced, all comes down to three minutes in the semifinals.’
Now, Beck has a chance to rewrite his narrative in the national championship game, looking to bring Miami its first title since 2001.