NC State OC Tim Beck: "It's About Execution"
NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck met with the media to discuss the upcoming matchup against Wake Forest.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
How does play calling change when you're down 21-3?
Honestly, it was just more of, hey, do what we got to do. And just as you could tell, we threw a lot more and just started playing and I think we caught fire a little bit, got a little momentum and MJ did a good job. Receivers, O-Line and really good protection during that time. One thing led to another and we just started moving the football, right?
It's not secret. We execute and we do our job and block and throw and catch, good things that can happen.
How do you balance trying to maybe, I don't know if protect is the right word, but got a young quarterback obviously, and then you're playing a game here where you know you might have to put up some real points that may be a little more aggressive than you potentially like.
It's about execution, right?
It's still, we have to execute, doesn't matter what we game plan, what we think can hurt them. It's just, again, same thing like we talked about. It's about creating one good play after another. And so positive play, whatever that is, it doesn't matter.
All plays are designed to score. I never create a play and go, "Hey, this is a great two-yard gain. I love this play." I don't. They're all designed to score, we just got to execute, do a good job. And so, the more the quarterback runs those plays, the more he knows those plays, the higher percentage of us having a chance to have success because he touches the ball on every play.
What do you feel like MJ's biggest strength is as a quarterback, and in what area do you feel like he still needs to develop?
Well, I mean he needs to develop in all areas yet. I mean, he's still learning the game. He's still learning the college game. I mean, we had to call timeout at the end. He didn't know how to do victory. There's things you're like, really? Yeah, he's never had to do that in a college game before. Wasn't sure how to do it. We're calling time out at the end of the game and just to talk him through it, you know?
So there's a lot of things he has to learn. I was very, very impressed with his ability. He was very calm, didn't get rattled, especially late when we had to throw the football. He knew we were throwing the football, they knew we were throwing the football, they were trying to disguise and change coverages on him. He was able to react and basically did what he was coached.
Just played his rules, played on time, got the ball out and gave our guys a chance to catch it. That's what happened.
How's he doing this week preparing for Wake Forest?
Good. Yeah, he's doing really good. I'm really proud of him. It's not easy now. I mean, you're talking about a guy showed up in June and probably for four weeks or five, maybe six weeks, probably in a course of a week, maybe took two reps and all of a sudden to go in and do what he's done.
We knew it. I felt like MJ would be a major contributor for our football team if something happened, but we just had to make sure he was ready and to throw him in Syracuse and just, “Hey, go have at it on the road against the number one defense in the ACC and the crowd and two days to get him ready.” Probably wasn't fair to him.
And so the week off helped. We were able to give him more stuff and continue to coach him and teach him and attribute it to him. And he puts in a lot of work. He's a smart guy. He gets it. You got to tell him once, he understands it and he moves on and he executes. He's been really good this week. I love his body language. He's becoming more vocal. He's feeling like the team is his.
Was it a decision that you made last weekend to let MJ ride out the second half?
Yeah, pretty much. I just felt like I knew we were going to get him into the game. Jack started, MJ went in, had a couple series, Jack went back because there were plays that, I don't know if, I wasn't sure how well MJ knew 'em. And I wanted to get on the field trying to get the ball in space. And so I had Jack go back and then MJ finished a two-minute drive and I felt like there was some momentum with him. And so that's why I was like, I'm going to go with him and see, ride him out and see what happens.
How much easier is it that you now have visible evidence of what he does well? You don't have to guess. You see it. You saw it.
I love that. But again, he's 18 years old and every day he's learning something new. Every day he's learning something new at practice. So he's going to go into the game, and he's going to see a coverage, he's going to see something happen that he's never seen before. And so the biggest thing, just keep playing his rules. Keep playing with confidence. Shed the bad, right? Go one and oh. Move on to the next play if something bad happens and just keep going. And he's good at that. He's really good at that, and I love the way he handles himself with respect to all of that.
Is Wake Forest different with the new coordinator on defense?
Little bit. Yeah, a little bit. I think there's some similarities. You do see some things, front and coverage wise, but there are also definite differences in what they do and down and distance tendencies and things of that nature. So yeah, there is. They're well-coached. They play very hard. They're good up front. They do a really good job using their hands. They try to disguise, they have a lot of different coverages at times, and so it's going to be quite a challenge to go play, to go against them.