Everything Vanderbilt OC Tim Beck Said After Spring Practice

Commodores' coach talks about injuries, how the offensive line has grown and what the point of Saturday's spring game is among other things.

Vanderbilt Commodores Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck overseas the offense at practice Wednesday, July 31, 2024. / Denny Simmons/The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

Vanderbilt’s annual Black and Gold spring football game is set for Saturday and the Commodores are making final preparations for the scrimmage. After Thursday’s practice, offensive coordinator Tim Beck and a few players met with media members to talk about practices and the upcoming scrimmage.

Here’s everything Beck said after Thursday’s practice:

Beck on how injuries impact spring practices…

Well, that's the thing. Anytime you have anybody hurt on your football team, it gives somebody else an opportunity to step up, and Brycen's (Coleman) definitely been one of those guys that's taken advantage of those reps. So, you know, it's unfortunate because we'd like to have Eli (Stowers) get some reps in the spring, but he's not able to. So, we just move on to the next guy and get the next guy reps, and it helps grow those young guys up.

Beck on the team’s wide receivers…

I think our whole team, you know, obviously we're in a better place than we were a year ago. We still have some work to do in that area. Of course, Junior being back has a lot of experience. The one that we're missing right now is Richie. Richie Hoskins hasn't been able to go throughout the spring, but we'll have him back in the middle of the summer and he'll be ready to go. He's very reliable. And then the rest of them are a work in progress, but we've got some young freshmen that are starting to step up.

Beck on the offensive line’s development…

I think the O-line has done a really good job of understanding. We've got a few transfers, and kind of like last year, the guys we've taken out of the portal have got experience. One of them is a younger guy that's kind of a developmental player, but for the most part, they've done a really good job of buying into what we're doing and have made a lot of progress. And I would like to say that Cade McConnell has really stepped up this spring and done a nice job.

Beck on Diego Pavia’s work load in spring practices…

Well, we've limited his reps quite a bit. Now we let him go a little bit more today, but we've got several other quarterbacks that we need to get reps. So we don't let him go live at all, just because we've seen him live for several years now and we know what he can do. Where the younger guys—you haven't seen as much—so it's more important for them to get some of the live reps.

Beck on Saturday’s spring game…

Well, to me the spring game's more for the players and the fans. For us coaches, you're to the point now where we've got the majority of our work done. The spring game is just go out and play, have fun, but let's try to keep some guys healthy. You don't want to have an injury here this late in spring ball. So try to stay healthy, but still we want to go out and be competitive and be able to kind of go at each other a little bit.

Beck on quarterback rotation for the spring game…

Oh yeah, we will for sure. We'll rotate a lot of quarterbacks and let those freshmen get some reps. And that's more important to me than whether or not we win the spring game. It's not about winning the spring game—it's about continuing to get better as an offense and making sure that we're giving our guys opportunities to get better.

Beck on Blaze’s progress this spring…

I think Blaze (Berlowitz) has made some huge strides. I think he—you know, one of the things is he's been a little bit careless with the ball at times. He's been very cognizant of that, and he's done a really nice job of getting better. He kind of started off a little bit shaky in the beginning, and then through the middle of spring toward the end, he's really come on.

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