North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Beck, Pack Turn The Page
9/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes
Coaches meet with their quarterbacks all the time, but what made this get together a little more unusual was how it all came about. It was Beck, not coach O’Brien who called the meeting.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” said NC State’s head coach. “It was positive.”
In his first start as a college quarterback in Saturday’s 37-17 loss at
But Beck also had five interceptions and a fumble, turnovers that could not be overcome by flashy passing statistics.
This Saturday night, Beck will make his second start when NC State (0-2) hosts Wofford (2-0) at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“He came to me last night after practice and wanted to talk,” O’Brien said. “He said he knows that he wasn’t very good on Saturday, that there are a lot of things that he has to do personally to be better and that he was rededicating himself to this football team to do the best the job he could do at practice this week and that we would see a much better quarterback come Saturday.”
The intangibles are there for Beck to become a good quarterback, from his overall confidence to his arm strength. O’Brien says the key is getting him to work better within the framework of the offense and take what the defense is giving up as opposed to having too much faith in his strong arm to make throws that simply aren’t available.
“There are times when he’ll be asked to take shots down the field,” O’Brien said. “When he isn’t asked to take a shot down the field and dump the ball off he better start dumping the ball off. You get the ball to [Andre] Brown or [Jamelle] Eugene a couple of times as he’s done and just let them run with it, that’s as good as handing it off.”
Given the fact that the Wolfpack has averaged just 70 yards on the ground through two games, it may be incumbent upon Beck to progress very quickly. At B.C. on Saturday, the Pack threw the ball 54 times and ran it just 24 times, a ratio that would traditionally make O’Brien and Dana Bible uncomfortable. But if NC State’s running attack continues to stall, then it will be left up to Beck to make plays and do so without turning the football over.
“Everything on offense revolves around the quarterback,” said O’Brien. “He has to be your leader and as he goes, so goes the football team. Most teams with experienced quarterbacks are the better teams right now. We don’t have that right now, but we’re going to work really hard with
With Beck doing most of the damage in a game and a half of action, NC State currently leads the ACC in passing offense, and ranks 14th in the nation with an average of 311 yards per contest.
Those numbers, however, haven’t been enough to produce a win, primarily because the Wolfpack has also turned the ball over nine times in its first two games.
Still, O’Brien said NC State’s overall performance and effort level for 60 minutes was much better at
“The kids kept playing,” O’Brien said. “We went into the game with one focus, and that was to play every play hard for 60 minutes. I think we got pretty close to that goal. We didn’t win the football game because we didn’t play smart, but we’ve got to take this thing in increments. At least we played hard for the whole game.”
This week’s opponent, Wofford, won’t be easy to prepare for. Employing a run-oriented option attack, the Terriers have average 359 yards rushing in victories over
On the flip side, the Wolfpack is still in the process of adapting to a new staff, new schemes and new terminology.
The learning curve will continue this Saturday night when the Pack tries again to snap a losing streak that has now reached nine games.
“Obviously, we’re 0-2 and we’ve got to learn how to win,” said O’Brien. “There’s no time like the present to start doing that.”
Punter Switch: While O’Brien won’ be making another quarterback change this week, he will have a different punter in the starting line-up. Bradley Pierson, who averaged 38.5 yards on two second half punts at B.C., will replace redshirt freshman Nathan Franklin. It was
Cash Back: After attending the funeral of his father over the weekend, starting defensive tackle Alan Michael Cash will return to the line-up on Saturday. Strapped by Cash’s absence and a knee injury suffered by senior DeMario Pressley, the Wolfpack was shorthanded at the tackle spot at Chestnut Hill. Playing in back-up roles,
“You’ve got to give Clemmons and Kuhn a tremendous amount of credit,” O’Brien said. “You’ve got a German and a walk-on kid playing and they both played 20-some snaps and did a pretty good job for us. They were in there fighting like crazy.”
