Tim Beck: Coaching Primer

Tim Beck - Used to wearing red
I'm quite familiar with Beck so I can push this out rather quickly. This is an Interesting hire, but I like It.

In general, I liked Beck's scheme at Nebraska. It's more of a stretch zone base, rather than OSU's tight zone, but it typically utilizes more zone based tag schemes than Meyer has in the past (read: more blocking adjustments within zone scheme, or a lot more of this). It'll be interesting if some of that gets implemented into Meyer's offense, which I'm fairly certain will still be the base O as it has always been under Meyer (though he has often allowed his OCs to add wrinkles). Warriner will almost certainly be in charge of play calling now, as he's more directly familiar with Meyer's scheme and a promotion is in order to keep him around. Meyer has tended to prefer to promote from within as well.

Hit the jump for more on coaching ability, fit at OSU, and offensive wrinkles he may add.


So while Beck will play a significant part in game planning (I've often thought his initial game plans outperformed his in game adjustments), maybe the major impact of this hire will be as a QB coach. While the Nebraska QBs have struggled a bit with passing, it's hard to say what's actually on Beck. The caliber of QB OSU will recruit and has is different than the Cornhuskers, who pretty much just have athletes throwing once in a while. But Beck has worked on mechanics a bit, albeit with only moderate results.

On a more positive and probably more important note, he understands the run and pass game footwork and ball handling essential to Meyer's scheme. This is critical to the timing and reads in both the run and pass game for the Buckeye offense to be effective. While pass footwork at times was inconsistent in Lincoln under Beck, ball handling was excellent, footwork on run plays and off of play action was quite good, and my impression was that Beck improved pass game footwork and got his QBs to get their eyes to the first read and get the ball out of their hands, which with the playmakers Columbus, is important. Improving his ability to get QBs off of presnap reads (a big part of Meyer's offense as well) and onto critical movement keys is essential; and teaching an ability to adjust trajectories and pace - which wasn't always evident in Nebraska - will be interesting to see how much was him and how much was his players.

Outside the zone tags, He is also creative with package plays and screens and understands the proper reads with those run/pass schemes to make those tick. Those are already a part of the Ohio State offense, though they were drastically trimmed down this year due to the lack of QB experience. Still, I think Beck has shown a bit more of it in the past. So don't get too caught up in the pure passing game of Beck's QBs previously, it's the many other aspects of this hire that are important to Meyer; and there is certainly room for some of Beck's wrinkles to find a way into the Buckeye playbook and game plans.

As far as recruiting, he's frpm Youngstown, which has to help a bit at home in a state that loves guys that understand OSU football. He played at UCF and maintained connections in Florida and pulled sought after recruit Z Darlington from there. Meyer still likes recruiting down south so that's a nice benefit. However, most of Beck's ciaching was in the plain states suck as Kansas (where he was the pass game coordinator under Mangino and worked along side Warinner), Mizzou, and Nebraska, somewhat similar to Warinner FWIW. All these aspects won't help OSU maintain recent Texas ties through Herman, but help elsewhere, particularly FL.

Inside Vertical Switch

Power Read and the FB adjustment

Scheming Cover 4 In Run Game

Stretch Scheme and the Backside LB

Coaching points vs Wisconsin (backside tags)

Candid and In Depth Interview with CornNation
Discusses offensive philosophy and talks about game planning, play calling, teaching, life etc.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Comments

  1. Someone on 11w said he was a HS coach in Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, checked his Wiki. Has about 5 years experience as a HC in Texas before moving onto Kansas as a WR coach in 2005. That should help with some connections there as well.

    ReplyDelete

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