Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal had choice words on Monday night that he cloaked in sarcasm for Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart and, more specifically, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.
At the 2026 Steve Spurrier Awards, Cristobal said of Canes quarterback Carson Beck, a Dawgs transfer, “…to watch what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching ... If it wasn’t for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn’t have NIL right now."
Beck just enjoyed his finest run in the College Football Playoff over his three years as a starter in his one-and-done campaign with the Hurricanes down in Coral Gables and Miami Gardens. While the 2025 season in Miami wasn't statistically his most efficient, that would be his 2023 season at UGA, Beck was one possession going the other way away from a national championship.
That's on Shannon Dawson and the roster Cristobal, LifeWallet CEO John Ruiz, and the rest of the The U's booster class more than it's on Bobo falling short. The 2023 Bulldogs were good enough to make the CFP and might've had a shot at winning it had they made the field. Unfortunately, that was the last year four teams made it. UGA beat an admittedly injured and out of it Florida State Seminoles 63-3 in that year's Orange Bowl, moving to 13-1 on the season.
Let us all remember Beck also wasn't starting for the Dawgs during their 23-10 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the 2025 Sugar Bowl, either. That was Gunner Stockton's debut as QB1.
Carson Beck's negative narrative at Georgia was for a reason
Beck was reportedly a "distraction and source of frustration" in Georgia's locker room during his two years in Athens -- at least according to CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello's sources back after his Dawgs departure.
“The nature in which Beck’s departure played out contributes to further sourness in the breakup. Sources say Georgia, at large, had already been miffed with Beck being away from the team during much of College Football Playoff preparation for the Sugar Bowl as Beck sought opinions from doctors in California and Texas,” Marcello wrote.
“Beck was on the sideline for the Sugar Bowl, where the Bulldogs’ season ended in a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame. Beck arrived in New Orleans a day later than his teammates and skipped the team’s media day. Some within the program that week seemed ready to move on from Beck, whose personality and headline-grabbing relationship with Miami basketball star and TikTok sensation Hanna Cavinder had become a distraction and a source of frustration for some teammates, sources said, though many of his teammates remained supportive of him as he dealt with a season-ending surgery.”
Cristobal clearly got a better experience from the Jacksonville, Florida, native. Perhaps Beck enjoyed his life in South Florida more. Maybe Beck was still a diva, but that wasn't as much of an issue at The U.
Either way, all is well now. Both parties are better off. A Beck-Bulldogs beef feels forced at best.