CFP title game 'goose bump' moment for Carson Beck's high school coach
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It never gets old and always remains exciting for Bobby Ramsay, the opportunity to watch one of his former players participate in a college football national championship game.
In 2015, it was running back Derrick Henry helping Alabama to the title.
And on Jan. 19, it will be quarterback Carson Beck trying to help Miami upset Indiana.
Ramsay coached Henry at Yulee and Beck at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville.
“It’s a you-just-can’t-believe-what-you’re-watching kind of feeling,” Ramsay said in a phone interview.
There is an added bonus for Ramsay, now the coach at Jackson High School: He’s been a Miami fan his whole life; his late father, Bobby, Sr., earned his Ph.D. degree from the school.
“I can remember being 6 years old and watching (Miami defensive lineman) Jerome Brown,” Ramsay said. “I get goose bumps just thinking about it.”
Beck has delivered several goose bump-like moments in his first and only season with ‘The U.’ The Hurricanes are 13-2 and beat Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss en route to the school’s first title game since 2002. Beck has 29 touchdown passes and his 3-yard touchdown run was the game-winning score against Ole Miss in the CFP semifinals.
A year after leaving Georgia, Beck is one win away from joining Jacksonville area natives Tim Tebow (Nease/Florida) and Mac Jones (Bolles/Alabama) as national championship-winning quarterbacks.
“I don’t know if you want to say this is a redemption tour (for Beck), but it does remind people that, ‘Hey, I’m a pretty good quarterback,’” Ramsay said.
Mandarin to Georgia
Beck, 23, played two years at the Providence School before joining Ramsay at Mandarin ahead of the 2018 season. And what a debut season it was for both player and program.
The Mustangs started 2-3, but finished 11-4 and won the Class 8A state title with a 37-35 upset win over previously-undefeated Miami Columbus. Beck finished with 3,546 yards passing and 30 touchdowns and was named Florida’s Mr. Football.
As a senior, Beck had 1,843 yards passing and 20 touchdowns.
Seven-plus years later, Ramsay still raves about Beck’s football intelligence as a player in his teens.
“It allowed us to put a lot more trust in him,” Ramsay said. “It was an RPO-heavy (run-pass option) offense and that involved him making the right read. It allowed for us to give him decision-making (responsibility) you don’t typically give other quarterbacks. You gave him the freedom to make the right decision and the right read instead of pre-determining things.”
Beck signed with Georgia and watched for three years. In this transfer portal/chase-the-highest-financial-offer climate, spending five years at a program is increasingly rare, especially when a player doesn’t start quickly. Another outlier is Texas’ Arch Manning, who was a back-up for two years.
“Carson made a strong commitment to that university and that community,” Ramsay said. “He could have left.”
Beck went 24-3 with 52 touchdowns and 18 interceptions in two seasons starting for Georgia and then did leave. He initially declared for the NFL draft before pivoting and joining Miami. Did Miami make an offer (reportedly $4 million) Georgia was unwilling to match? Did Georgia prefer Gunnar Stockton over Beck? Did Beck simply need a fresh start? Maybe a combination of all three, but from afar, it was surprising to see the Beck-Bulldogs partnership dissolve.
“It would have been nice for (Georgia fans) to say, ‘Best of luck and thank you,’” Ramsay said. “He did a lot of things for that university. He was kind of pushed out.”
’Really special time’
The Canes fan in Ramsay was thrilled when Beck committed to Miami on Jan. 10, 2025, same for the Beck fan in Ramsay.
“My reaction was, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this,’” Ramsay said. “I had always dreamed of having a player to go to Miami and to know he was going there to play for his last year, it was just cool because everybody there was excited he was going there.”
Miami opened with a win over Notre Dame and was cruising along until losing two out of three games to Louisville and SMU. The Hurricanes didn’t make the ACC Championship Game, but snuck into the playoffs. They won at Texas A&M, beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl and Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.
In the three playoff games, Beck is 56-of-83 passing for 509 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
The game-winning drive against Ole Miss was emblematic of Beck’s career: Some starts and stops, but success. The Hurricanes needed 15 plays to drive 75 yards. Beck converted a third-and-10 with a 17-yard pass and a second-and-11 with an 11-yard pass to set up his touchdown scramble.
“It wasn’t 8-10 yards a pop and ripping it down the field,” Ramsay said. “He had to overcome third-and-long. To not get rattled, he just really embraced the situational aspect of it. How much time do I have? What do I have to do? If he just had to get the first down and give them the opportunity to play on, he did.”
Next up for Miami, on its home field, is the runaway locomotive that are the Hoosiers (15-0). The stadium may be a sea of red, but the atmosphere won’t rattle Beck. He started in the SEC for two years and won at Texas A&M last month with Miami.
Ramsay will watch from his home because, he joked, “I don’t have $3,500 (reported ticket price) sitting around.”
“It’s been great fun to see how this whole thing unfolded,” he said. “He’s given his family, his fans and his high school a really special time.”
His coach, too.
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: CFP title game ‘goose bump’ moment for Carson Beck’s high school coach
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