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Quincy Carter would have liked to take some time off to get away for awhile. Really. How great would a little trip to the beach or just jetting off somewhere with a few friends have been? Shoot, just to go somewhere, anywhere other than a football field in Athens.
Problem is when you are a Heisman Trophy candidate on a team picked by some to win the SEC and battle for the national championship, well, there just isn't a lot of free time.
"I didn't get a break to be honest," Carter said. "I wish I could have squeezed a vacation in there, but I know what I've got to do to prepare for this football team. I know this football team expects a lot out of me and so I've got to be as prepared as I can be. I accepted my role, (but) it's been hard over the last couple of years because those expectations have been put on me since the first day I got here. But I accepted it and I'm ready to go on. We've had some ups and downs and now we are ready to put this whole thing together."
|  | | Georgia's Quincy Carter threw for 2,713 yards and 17 TDs and rushed for 255 yards and 5 TDs last season. |
If the Bulldogs are going to put it all together, Carter will be the one to make sure it stays that way. Carter, a 6-foot-3, 218 pound junior, gave up playing baseball in the Chicago Cubs organization this summer to work on his game.
That's not to say it needs a lot of work. A two-year starter, Carter's a career .585 percent passer with 5,197 yards and 29 TDs. He's also rushed for 539 yards and nine TDs. Still, there was Carter working with receivers and sweating his Bulldog tail off over the summer.
"It wasn't really one phase I worked on," Carter said. "Game-wise I want to know every possible option in our passing game to every coverage. No matter what the coverage I want to know where the outlet is or where that fifth receiver is."
Now his job is to learn how to beat Tennessee and Florida. Carter is 0-4 against the two teams and while he has thrown for over 1,100 yards in his four games against the Vols and Gators, he has also thrown five interceptions compared to two touchdowns.
Carter says he doesn't feel any added pressure.
"I don't feel any burden because I have so much talent around me. I know what this football team can do," Carter said. "I know there are a lot of expectations on myself but at the same time my teammates are going to make me a better quarterback having that much talent around."
If Carter can lead the Dawgs to a pair of wins over the Vols and Gators -- especially considering those two battles are likely to be the national games of the week -- then not only will Georgia be living up to the preseason hype, Carter might just be in line for a seat at the Heisman presentation in New York.
Now that would be a pretty good vacation.
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Quincy Carter throws a 71-yard bomb to Randy McMichael. (courtesy ABC Sports)
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Quincy Carter calls his own number and runs it in for the TD in 1998.
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