The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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JULY/AUGUST 2020 ■ 31 neighborhood, went to a corner and played football against another neighborhood. "That's what I did my whole life, noth- ing but football. That was started in me at a very young age. It's something that I still enjoy doing." Beck took a strategic approach to mapping out his career. For instance, he decided to focus on math classes at Central Florida so that when he applied for high school coach- ing jobs he could double as a math teacher, which he knew was a rare combination. Just as importantly, Beck had a knack for developing relationships that would pay dividends. One fateful mutual acquaintance helped lead him to NC State. While Beck was coaching high school football in Texas, Dave Doeren was an as- sistant at Kansas under head coach Mark Mangino. Beck and Mangino had previ- ously coached together at Kansas State. Doeren was tasked with recruiting the area, and Mangino made it a point to tell Doeren to be sure to check in on Beck. "Sharp, very sharp guy," Beck remem- bered of his first impression of Doeren. "Very organized, sharp, detailed. He was a relentless recruiter. He really did a great job. Our players really liked him. He recruited two or three of the guys, and he did a fan- tastic job with them. "We just hit it off, he and I did. We had a lot of the same characteristics." Doeren noted that Beck had a "magnetic personality," and the Pack head coach added that Beck impressed him with how he built relationships with his players. "I got to know him and really liked how we interacted, and we just became friends," Doeren said. "I respected him a lot. I went and watched him run practices and how his players looked up to him and how hard his players played for him." Soon there would be an opening on Mangino's staff as a wide receivers coach, and Beck was hired. They worked together one year in 2005, but both Doeren and Beck proved to be on the fast track. Doeren left the following season for Wisconsin, work- ing his way up to defensive coordinator and eventually head coaching jobs at Northern Illinois and now NC State. In 2008, Beck joined his old neighbor Bo Pelini at Nebraska and eventually became the offensive coordinator. Then came stops as the co-OC at Ohio State and coordinator at Texas. Along the way, both Doeren and Beck admitted there were conversations about reuniting. "Probably three different times to be hon- est with you," Beck said. "Just the timing was never the right timing." "I tried to hire him multiple times as a head coach," Doeren confirmed. "I've never had the success until now to get him." Beck is tasked with helping jump-start NC State's offense after a sluggish cam- paign in 2020. The Pack was 11th in total offense and 12th in scoring out of 14 ACC teams in 2019. NC State redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary was immediately taken in by Beck. "He definitely takes command," Leary noted. "First time meeting Coach Beck, I felt this guy's presence. "I was curious to see who Coach Beck was; he had a great résumé, coming from a bunch of great programs. Immediately as he stepped in the door he let everyone in the building know who he is, what he set out to accomplish and that we're never going to underachieve ourselves." Beck is similar to other offensive coordi- nators: he is going to call plays predicated upon the strengths of his personnel with a desire to find the right one-on-one matchups in space for his playmakers. While the chess match with opposing de- fensive coordinators is fun, nothing pleases him more than watching his players work to put a plan into action and seeing it pay dividends. "We could play really bad and win, and it devastates me because I didn't do a good job, I didn't prepare them well enough," Beck explained. "I didn't give them all the answers, I didn't coach them well enough. "Seeing a plan come together and seeing those guys execute that plan at a high level and have success, I love that. That's awesome." Beck can speak from experience. The Youngstown, Ohio, boy who grew up around football has managed to successfully plan and build a career in the sport that he was raised to coach. "I'm incredibly blessed," Beck admitted. ■ " When you were a kid, football is what you did. You went down in the neighborhood, went to a corner and played football against another neighborhood. That's what I did my whole life, nothing but football. That was started in me at a very young age. It's something that I still enjoy doing. " Beck on growing up in Youngstown, Ohio