CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Days after he walked off the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium last December with both an SEC Championship and an injured elbow, Carson Beck sat in his car outside Georgia’s football facility trying to process what doctors had just told him.

His injury wasn’t a simple one. It couldn’t be treated with rest or ice or physical therapy.

Instead, what loomed in front of him was surgery and an intense rehabilitation process that Beck could only hope would give him the chance to get back to the game he loved.

He wouldn’t play for Georgia in the College Football Playoff. He wouldn’t throw for months.

His future was uncertain and that was a devastating reality.

“I think I sat in my car outside that facility for like four hours,” Beck recalled. “I didn’t know what to do. I was just sitting there, staring out the window and thinking.”

A year later, Beck is in a very different place – both mentally and physically.

The quarterback had surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow last December and not long after, made the decision to transfer to Miami.

He arrived in Coral Gables in January, his arm still in a sling, his determination intact and his goals were simple.

He wanted to get back on the field and help Miami compete for a national title.

He’s already accomplished the first. Now, he’s working on the second.

On Saturday, Beck and the 10^th-seeded Hurricanes will open play in the College Football Playoff with a first-round matchup against seventh-seeded Texas A&M in College Station.

There is plenty of excitement about that opportunity, of course, but as he prepares for Saturday’s game, Beck can’t help but feel something else.

Gratitude.

“It’s honestly unreal to just kind of step back and look at the whole of everything that’s happened,” Beck said this week. “And it’s surreal to get to this point, honestly and to realize everything I’ve been through and realize the adversity that I’ve had to face and overcome.

“And that being said, it doesn’t mean that just because I overcame it that everything’s going to be perfect moving on, right? You’re going to continue to face things like that. You’re going to continue to have challenges and have to overcome certain things. But like I said, if you take a step back and look at it full circle, it’s super surreal and I’m super grateful to have gotten to this opportunity. You go back to January, February, and it was really hard to see this part and see everything forthcoming.”

While Beck was on campus for Miami’s offseason conditioning program early in the year, and was there during spring drills, there was little he could do, other than rehab his elbow, get to know his new teammates and try to provide support from the sideline.

He wasn’t able to throw, wasn’t able to practice, and couldn’t start building chemistry with the offensive line that would protect him or the wide receivers who would catch his passes.

Still, the sixth-year redshirt senior put his head down and worked as hard as he could to get his elbow stronger and the Hurricanes couldn’t help but take note – particularly once Beck was cleared to throw and fall camp got underway.

“He’s like an educator of football. That’s what I call him,” Hurricanes running back Mark Fletcher Jr. said earlier this year. “He just knows a lot of football. He’s played a lot of football and anytime he sees something, he just tries to give back. That’s not only to me, that’s to everybody.”

Said offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa after Miami’s first day of camp, “It was a glimpse of something. The first practice was really great. He went out there, and did his thing, as we expected. I mean, shoot, he’s Carson Beck.”

A glimpse indeed.

Beck navigated preseason camp as best he could and set his sights on Miami’s season opener against Notre Dame.

Despite all the work he’d done to prepare and all he’d endured since his surgery, it wasn’t until he threw his first pass against the Irish – a short completion to receiver Keelan Marion – that Beck said he finally felt like himself again.

“First game against Notre Dame, I walked out on that field, and we had a pass play called on the first play, but they pinned us inside the 10, so we ran the ball, and I was like, ‘Damn it. I need to get this over with,’” Beck laughed. “Then we run a concept and they drop into one-high and I come back to Keelan. He’s got a little end route, and I bang it on him. He gets 15 and I was like, ‘Alright, I’m back.’ And from there on out, I was back and I was ready to roll, and it’s been one hell of a season.”

The Hurricanes went on to win that game against Notre Dame and ultimately, put together their second straight 10-win season.

There were wins over in-state foes USF, Florida and Florida State and a masterful four-game stretch to end the regular season in which Miami’s offense thrived and Beck shone.

The quarterback enters Saturday’s game against Texas A&M having completed 74.7 percent of his passes on the year – a number that ranks second in the nation. He’s also thrown for 3,072 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Beck is on track to break Miami’s single-season completion percentage record and has already set a new program record with 24 straight completions.

He’s become one of Miami’s leaders, and his experience having played championship-level football at Georgia has given him poise the Hurricanes know they’ll need on Saturday when they take the field in front of 100,000 fans in College Station.

“He’s been in big games. This is nothing that he hasn’t been in. I do think that matters,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “His poise is going to be basically contagious through the whole group. … At some point, both teams are going to come to a situation where it’s going to be a crucial time in the game, and we’ve got to make a play. And it’s no different on their side. The team that makes that play is probably going to win the game and your players, your best players, have to be their best in those times and he’s very aware of that.”

Said Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal, “To see a guy that came in with so much scrutiny, having to recover from surgery and everything else to grow like he’s grown and now come back, playing his best football down the stretch, I think it’s awesome. It’s awesome to see how he approaches each and every day. He’s really, really driven.”

For his part, Beck says he is more than ready to get back on the field and do his part to keep Miami’s season going.

Like many Hurricanes fans, he watched the College Football Playoff selection show nervously and concedes he was somewhat hiding in his kitchen as the bracket was announced and matchups were set.

When Miami’s name appeared on the screen at No. 10, he realized the Hurricanes were in and there was pure celebration – for a moment.

“When they finally put The U up there, I’m running around the house, we’re jumping up and down, screaming and yelling. I got about 50 phone calls in the next five minutes, and it honestly was obviously a great moment,” Beck said. “But the next day, we were in here working. Obviously, we enjoyed that. We enjoyed that experience. But we understand what it’s going to take to make something happen in these playoffs and in this game. So, we went right to work from there.”

That mentality, that approach, has defined Beck’s journey for the past 12 months.

Since his injury, he’s focused on the work of getting himself better, and the work of making the Hurricanes better.

There have been moments and milestones to celebrate – both as a team, and as a quarterback trying to come back from a gut-wrenching diagnosis.

There has been gratitude and grit and fight, and through it all, Beck has needed only to look down at his right arm to remind himself how far he, and now his teammates, have come.

Before the start of the 2024 season, before he got hurt, and before he transferred to Miami, Beck added a tattoo to that right arm. It’s art of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Today, the scar from his surgery runs through the ink.

The design – and all it signifies – isn’t lost on him.

“I mean, it’s crazy. … A crazy coincidence that I got that last year before the season and now, my scar literally goes right through it,” Beck said. “But I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, actually. It’s part of my story and it’s been one hell of a ride.

“I’m ready to go out there again Saturday and try to add another chapter to it.”