CHARLOTTE — Carson Beck has experienced what it is like to win at the highest of levels during his collegiate career.

While he did not win a national title as the starting quarterback during his time at Georgia, he was on the roster serving as the backup to Stetson Bennett when the Bulldogs won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.

After spending five seasons in Athens, Beck has now made the move to South Florida, transferring to Miami after last season, meaning the veteran quarterback will now be playing in the ACC. When asked how he thinks the ACC and SEC stack up when compared to one another, Beck had an interesting and insightful answer.

“I don’t think it is really an ACC-SEC conversation,” Beck told The Clemson Insider. “Because you could ask the same question from team to team. That is how I like to see it. Just from a quarterback perspective, it’s more about from defensive coordinator to defensive coordinator. Because that is what I am going against. I am not going against an SEC defense, because South Carolina is going to look different than Kentucky, and Kentucky is going to look different than Tennessee. It is more of a coach-to-coach basis. I think that is the biggest difference. Defensive coordinator to defensive coordinator as opposed to ACC-SEC.”

Now that he is moving to a new conference after spending so much of his career playing in the SEC, Beck is overly excited to match up against some new defensive coordinators.

“That is what I am most excited to see,” Beck added. “We talked about that earlier, playing against new defensive coordinators. That is the side of the game that I really love. The chess match of it. How they are preparing, what they are doing to try and stop our offense. And ultimately, what we are doing to try and counteract what they are doing. Through film study, in-game adjustments and things like that.”

While he is looking forward to the new challenges, there is no specific coach he is looking forward to playing more than another.

“All of them? I don’t know,” Beck said with a chuckle. “Just new schemes, new things obviously. Guys talk to each other. Whether this guy can be a third-down guru, or this guy does exotic stuff on run downs. Or they like to play more zone than man in the red zone. All different stuff. I could talk football for five hours up here. I am really just excited to play against new teams.”

While Miami and Clemson won’t meet in the regular season, there is always the possibility of the two teams squaring off in Charlotte, and Beck was more than complimentary of the Tigers’ defense after having faced off against them in the season opener last year.

Maybe, just maybe, Tom Allen is one of those new defensive coordinators Beck gets to face off with at some point in the postseason.

“We played against them last year at Georgia,” Beck said. “Very talented front seven. That first half, there was not much we could do on offense. They were one of the premier defenses we played last year.”

Photo courtesy of Jim Dedmon.Imagn Images