It didn’t take Carson Beck long to decide on a new school.

The former Georgia QB announced Friday that he would be heading to Miami for the 2025 season and his final year of eligibility. Beck had previously declared for the NFL Draft but entered the transfer portal on Thursday when he decided to stay in college for another season.

Beck suffered a season-ending elbow injury late in the first half of Georgia’s SEC title game win over Texas in December when he was hit while attempting to throw a deep pass. Beck missed the rest of the game – although he came close to the goal line to hand the ball off – and also missed the team’s Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame.

Gunner Stockton replaced Beck against Texas and started against Notre Dame. He is expected to compete alongside Ryan Puglisi for the Bulldogs’ starting spot in 2025.

Beck was Georgia’s starter for two seasons and had a down year in 2024. Beck was one of the better QBs in college football in 2023, completing 302 of 417 passes for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdowns with six interceptions a season ago.

But when players like Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey left for the NFL in 2024, Beck’s stats plummeted as Georgia didn’t have an option on a top player.

A season ago, Beck completed 302 of 417 passes for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdowns with six interceptions. In 2024, Beck completed 290 of 448 passes for 3,485 yards and 28 TDs, but also threw 12 interceptions as his interception rate nearly doubled from 1.4% in 2023 to 2.7% in 2024.

Beck will likely miss spring training

Beck suffered a UCL injury against the Longhorns and likely won’t be able to practice for Miami this spring. The uncertainty about his short-term future clearly appears to have played a role in his decision to stay in college. By returning to school, Beck can not only continue to make money on NIL deals in Miami in 2025, but he can also position himself as a stronger draft candidate ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.

That worked out well for Cam Ward in Miami in 2024. Ward declared for the draft after two seasons at Washington State after spending two years at FCS Incarnate Word. But not long after declaring for the draft, Ward reconsidered his NFL options and entered the transfer portal.

At Miami this season, Ward was one of the best quarterbacks in college football and was a Heisman finalist. He played his way into the first round of the NFL draft and was even able to go No. 1 overall. Ward was the No. 1 pick by the Tennessee Titans in our latest Yahoo Sports mock draft earlier this week.

It will be difficult for Beck to repeat what Ward did – especially when he missed few to no reps this spring. But the ACC should be wide open again in 2025, and a strong performance could put Beck in a better draft position than he currently finds himself in due to the injury and an offseason.