ATHENS — Nothing is a coincidence when it comes to the way head coach Kirby Smart runs his program.
So when the Georgia head coach told reporters that the Bulldogs were looking into getting their quarterback room up to four scholarship players back during the early signing period, that should’ve signaled that the Bulldogs were serious about doing so.
“That’s something we have to think long and hard about,” Smart said in December. “Our hard number is four. We want to be at four, and we’re not at four. So again, we’ll look at our options and see what we can do there. We would like to be at four, but that’s our goal.”
The Bulldogs had just three scholarship quarterbacks this season but were at four during each of their championship-winning seasons.
It seems Georgia may have identified who that fourth quarterback could be. Multiple reports indicate that UNLV quarterback Jayden Maiava took a visit to Georgia last week.
Maiava has three years of eligibility remaining. As a redshirt freshman, he threw for 3,085 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also ran for 277 yards and 3 touchdowns as well for the Rebels. UNLV enjoyed great success this past season, going 9-5 on the year under first-year head coach Barry Odom.
Part of what made the idea of Georgia adding a quarterback tricky is that it already has its starting quarterback for the 2024 season. Carson Beck announced he would be returning to Georgia for another season in December, days before Smart made his comments about adding a fourth quarterback.
Beck will be looking to build off an impressive debut season, as he threw for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdowns.
“I set really high expectations,” Beck said prior to the Orange Bowl. “But it definitely could have done a whole lot better. There’s so many opportunities left out on the field. So many decisions where it’s like, I go back and watch on film, I’m like, I’ve done that 1,000 times and how could I possibly mess that up?”
“So just really coming back and being super tough on myself as we go into next year.”
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