NC State OC Tim Beck: "It's Going To Be Quite A Challenge"
NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck met with the media to discuss the upcoming matchup against Louisville.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
How much has Michael Allen been an asset to the offense?
Yeah, Mike's done a great job. His progress throughout the course of the season's been awesome.
It's warranted him, obviously more playing time and carries and like all young players that are freshmen, they come in... there's a part of just growing and maturation and learning and how they prep themselves for games and just everything. School, being away from home, there's a lot, and we usually tell those guys in recruiting, it's not the talent, it just takes time sometimes for players.
The worst thing we can do as a coach is put a player on the field that isn't ready because then they go on and they don't have success and then it's just a bad way to start your career.
So you just bring them along slowly until you feel like they're ready to go out there and do their thing and then you turn them loose and been very pleased with him.
MJ said he was getting used on the last game as a learning experience to try to get better from it. Has he handled that this week in practice?
Yeah, I think he played a little bit like a freshman, starting a second game at times. And I think he saw that.
During the game you don't realize it and when you watch the tape afterwards, you start to realize, should have gave that one, should have pulled this one, I missed this throw, and things of that nature. So I think he tried to do too much at times and he just needs to keep doing what he did previous games, which was just kind of running the offense within the confines of the offense. He doesn't have to be Superman, he doesn't have to make incredible plays. He just has to distribute the football to the correct guy at the correct time.
I think sometimes that's hard, and for a young player that's been a star to come up. I've gone through this before with other young quarterbacks that played, they can get away with those things in high school and they can't get away with them in college.
Coach Garrison had to shuffle things around. McMahon... Anthony Carter getting his first extensive playing time this year. How hard is that mid-game?
It's hard, really hard.
I thought Dylan did an outstanding job for a guy that... he maybe gets three or four reps every two weeks at center to have to go in and make all the calls, all the protection calls or run calls.
And for Anthony Carter, he hasn't played all year for us. To go in, I thought he played really, really well for us and was excited to see his progress, and for him to be able to go in and play like he did. So that's obviously a bright sign.
Trent Pennix also banged up kind of hung in there...
What a tough competitor he is, man. My hat goes off to him. And just the respect you have for that guy playing through all the bumps and bruises and injuries he has and the love he has for his teammates in the game. And he just keeps fighting and he certainly is a difference maker. You can see it. I mean, it's a guy. He's played a game and a half and a couple touchdowns and some big catches for us.
You watch Louisville, you guys do it yourselves. Seems like the college football game is send seven against six, trying to send eight versus seven. Obviously they blitz and blitz and blitz. How difficult is that in College football?
Yeah, it's hard. They're kind of feast and famine. They get a lot of tackles for loss, a lot of turnovers, a lot of sacks, and they've given up some big plays and sometimes that happens when you're pressuring a lot.
So they're good, they're fast, they can run, they're very multiple in terms of fronts and coverage. So it's going to be quite a challenge for our guys.
The running back... tight ends. How difficult is blitz pickup for them?
They're definitely involved in it, much more so than other games that we've been involved in. This will be one that they definitely have to do a good job.