An analysis of OC Tim Beck.

[EmeraldIngot]

Ever since the beginning of his time here, the opinion in this board has fluxuated wildly. From football mastermind to humbling idiot. Like most things, I'd like to point out what I feel are his strengths -of which there are many- and weaknesses -which are glaringly obvious- to reveal the truth. And the short and simple truth is that he is not a perfect football coach, no one is, but does have the potential to become great if he can fix those flaws.

 

So, to start, I'll go over his schemes. Tim Beck blends power and spread in several ways, and is mostly successful. However, he leans closer to the spread side of things. I'll go over the blocking schemes, WR routes, Running game, and quarterback play.

 

To start with, I think Coach Beck has a solid, if not excellent, grasp of O-line play. He has shown over his career that he knows the theory of and can successfully implement zone blocking, protection slides and RB blitz pickup in pass blocking, assignment blocking, trap schemes, power leads with one or more pulling linemen, and of course, the various read option and speed option blocking schemes. Our O-line play is generally good, with the relatively limited talent we have had in the past few years compared to other power 5 conferences (look at the o-line of the top SEC and PAC-12 teams, for example). However, it's not all good. We have suffered from a lack of discipline, especially in screen plays and in the number of o-line penalties. Part of this is because of poor coaching by the line coach, and partly because we are asking good o-linemen to play in a blocking scheme as complicated as most NFL teams. There will be mistakes, but with better talent and better coaching this could be a major strength for us again. A better understanding of the guys we have should allow Beck to tailor the blocking scheme to fit the abilities we have, rather than asking them to do something they aren't yet able to do with consistency. Plus, TEs should be used more in the blocking schemes, especially to pick up blitzes from the outside.

 

On to wide receiver routes. One of coach Beck's greatest strengths is his understanding of defensive coverages and how to spread the field to find soft spots, allowing for one or two simple reads for the qb. He has shown that he is able to set up one on one match ups reliably, and forcing a corner or safety to have to make an excellent athletic play or commit a foul to prevent a big play. He seems to subscribe more to the Air Coryell style of passing attacks than the West Coast style, and with Armstrong, he seems to be having quite a bit of success with it. Another mark in his favor is the fact that he stresses the fact that WRs need to be able to block. This, he seems to be able to implement quite well. However, he still is not perfect here either. Along with his deep passing attack, he needs to include the TEs and RBs in short out routes, middle slants, crossing routes, and wheel routes as check downs on every deep pass play. This will stretch the defense vertically and horizontally, forcing them to defend the whole field every play. Further more, he has shown almost a complete absence of screens, curls, and other quick passing attacks, especially in the face of a blitzing opponent. Against McNeece State, one or two deep routes combined with two to four quick routes could have gotten our athletes into open space against few defenders to make big gains against their heavy blitzes. Hell, two slants across the middle when they brought their LBs (which they did often) could have broken their D. This problem has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with scheme. The upside is that it can be quickly remedied.

 

Since this is my first post here and it's getting kinda hard to type this out on my smartphone, I'll come back later with posts on the running game and qb play. Also, as impossible as it may seem, I'd like to keep this thread calm and rational. As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm on this site, I'd like this to be an objective analysis rather than another flame thread. Thank you.

[jimk]

Thanks Tim!!!

[EmeraldIngot]

Now, on to the running game. There is very little to complain about here, but it ties in with a few other areas, so I'd like to go over it anyway. The blocking up front has been good for the most part, with running lanes opening up for the RBs in most games, but on the occasion that we go up against a team that, for whatever reason, is stuffing the inside run, we need to have more variety in the play calling, particularly short passes and screens, and outside runs. As a fan of the 90's husker teams, I'd like to see some triple option. Maybe some two back shotgun sets with Cross going up the middle and Armstrong and Abdulla on the option to the outside. Or perhaps even a triple option out of the Full House formation we use out of the pistol set. But that's just me. Moving on, I'd like to see more counter trap plays to take advantage of the aggressive D-lines we face through the year, and to keep the LBs honest. And lastly, if it isn't broken, don't fix it. If the run is working play in and play out, keep running it until thhe defense is forced to drop 8 in the box, then run a play action long bomb with a nice check down route. The run game Beck calls is solid, but as Beck is a balanced OC, he doesn't realize that there are as many variations in the run game as there are in the pass, and if the run isn't working, you don't automatically have to turn to the passing game. Simply changing things up in the run, and moving AA away from where the D is keying up on him might be enough. Not always, but often enough. It seems to me that when a team successfully stuffs our running attack, the almost always drop into coverage the next play, because they seem to know that Beck will call a pass play. There are a few areas here that he could work on, but he seems to be doing a solid job right now as it is. Not excellent, not quite, but solid nonetheless.

 

I'll cover QBs in my next post.

[Guy Chamberlin]

Strictly objective? I think it's pretty amazing you banged that out on a smart phone.

[Count 'Bility]

No doubt in my mind this is Scott Frost.

[Bob Dole Jr]

Great post, can't wait for the rest of this analysis. Is there going to be one for the other side of the ball as well?

[Joe_5700]

For Tim Beck all you really have to say is when he doesn't go away from what is working he does a good job. When our QB doesn't try to go for the home run or longer routes when the shorter route is open, he does a good job.

[Treand3]

Now, on to the running game (...)

 

I'll cover QBs in my next post.

This is good. Not much to disagree about.

[Count 'Bility]

For Tim Beck all you really have to say is when he doesn't go away from what is working he does a good job. When our QB doesn't try to go for the home run or longer routes when the shorter route is open, he does a good job.

Which is very far in between.

[EmeraldIngot]

Just a few quick things before I'll be able to post the next analysis later on today: First, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a football player in any college team, nor am I a coach and/or other staff member at any college or professional team. It is my dream to someday be a coach, on any level, but I am not a coach right now. Also, I wished I was Scott Frost. OC for oregon, former Husker, won a national championship... that was my dream. Unfortuntely, I wasn't able to make it on a college team.

 

As for doing an analysis of the defense? Well, I am much more of an offensive kind of mind, but I could try!

[Count 'Bility]

This just smells like a WIFI hack job.

[NUpolo8]

Strictly objective? I think it's pretty amazing you banged that out on a smart phone.

Let's just say....

 

(Puts on sunglasses)

 

it's easy, for ol' E........

[EmeraldIngot]

This just smells like a WIFI hack job.

... I'm not sure I get what you mean by this...

[EmeraldIngot]

Now, finally, I'll do my best to analyze the QB play. I will limit this analysis to QBs that have played under Coach Beck. That means Taylor Martinez (so please don't turn this into yet another Taylor-bash. We've already had enough of those, and he's gone now anyway) Ron Kellogg III, Tommy Armstrong, and I will touch on Ryker Fyfe based on his performance in the spring game and against FAU.

 

Much of this analysis will touch on the other three, so that's why I post it last. To star with, let's look at the QB run game. There is about as much to complain about with this as there is for the RBs run game, but there are a few points I'd like to make. First of all, Martinez, Armstrong, and Fyfe have all made some bad reads, depending on the play call. If the read option in any form is going to be used in this system, practice of the QB/RB mesh, the read on the DE/DT/LB depending on the play, and coaching the QBs on how to cut, juke, and when to slide/get out of bounds is absolutely vital. It should be practiced ad nauseum. Every. Single. Day. We do this pretty damn well already, but mostly on the merits of our QBs athleticism with little regard to running technique. If the QB is going to run often, they need some time with Coach Brown, the RB coach. The o-line does well, most of the time, blocking for the QB run, just like they do for the RB run, but I'd like to see those big uglies hit the LBs and DBs if they're not going to block a DE or DT.

 

In the passing game, it was a well known fact that TM couldn't throw the ball more than 40 yards in the air with any kind of accuracy, so the long ball wasn't much of an option except when a guy was wide open. I still remember some of the excellent post routes that TM connected with Kyle Reed on freshly big gains. However, at least when TM started improving a little in his accurracy, some of the short routes were thrown in and done with some success, but the accuracy wasn't there to throw a true West Coast attack, much like A&M did with Kenny Hill, and without the deep ball option... well, you guys were there. It wasn't always pretty. RK3 was more accurate, but didn't have a quick release and didn't have the arm strength either, so he played backup to a guy that many feel should never have played QB. TA has the arm strength, his accuracy has definitely improved, and throws a ball that looks like it belongs on Sunday games... but the quick routes aren't there since Beck is so keyed in on the long ball right now. TA has the quick release and accuracy necessary to throw a good West Coast quick passing attack, and is calm enough under pressure to do so against a blitz. Like I said in the passing analysis, adding the quick routes as check downs will make TA look so much better than he does right now, and will help prepare him for the next level. Ryker Fyfe doesn't appear to have quite the same amount of arm strength, but seems to be slightly more accurate with the short throws. Most of his passes get to the target, but his timing is a little off and the receiver drops it. This can be improved through practice, and between Fyfe and Stanton, I feel pretty damn good about our chances should anything unfortunate happen. There are two areas that right now are not very good among any of these QBs, but could be rapidly improved by one thing: a dedicated QB coach. All of our QBs suffer from some flaw in their mechanics, and from reading the defense. Both of these things are areas where a dedicated QB coach would be a tremendous asset to the team. Yes, I know that Joe Ganz is a Graduate Assistant in the program right now, and more or less fills that role, but to be frankly honest, I feel that a more experienced guy in this position would do us a world of good. Hell, I'd try to find a former NFL QB who is looking to get into coaching or just needs a regular paycheck and offer him the spot if I had any say in it. Either way, QB play has been acceptable, barely, with some games having us look like a contender for the NC, and other weeks making us look like a Jr high team. A QB coach, I think, could give us the consistency in this area we drastically need to truly make us contenders that I someday hope we will be.

 

At the end of the day, though, I think Beck still has some growing to do, but the foundation is already there for him to create an offense that could really make our team special, and I hope he reads this and is humble enough to admit that he's not perfect and takes the initiative to make a change for the better. I feel good about his future here at Nebraska, and if he sticks with us and improves, we should do our best to support him. Call him out when he messes up? Yes. Call for his job after one bad game? No.

 

As one final thing, March earlier this year, I had the chance to go to the Coaches Clinic at UNL. I personally met, shook hands with, and had a nice little 5 minute discussion with Coach Beck. I'm truly impressed by his football IQ, and that meeting made me realize that I had a lot of learning to do. Now, 6 months of studying game films, clinic transcripts, play books and install books, I feel I have begun to understand enough about the game to accurately point out not just the flaws in Beck's schemes, but to also offer viable solutions. By no means do I think I would make a better OC than him, because he still has 20 years of knowledge and experience on me (I'm only 25 years old) but I do see where and how he can improve. I pray that he will, and if he does, the Huskers could have a second coming of the Scoring Explosion of 1983.

[zoogs]

Great series of posts, man, thanks for taking the time. Love the insight!