12/16/2023 football Edit

Vanderbilt to hire New Mexico State's Tim Beck as offensive coordinator

Joey Dwyer • VandySports

Staff Writer

Clark Lea has his offensive coordinator.

The Commodores' head coach has hired former New Mexico State assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Tim Beck as Vanderbilt's next offensive play caller.

In addition to his tenure at New Mexico State, Beck led divison II power Pittsburg State to an 82-35 record in nine seasons as their head coach. The newest addition to the Vanderbilt staff also served as an offensive analyst at TCU during the 2021 season.

With Beck as offensive coordinator, New Mexico State finished the 2023 regular season with a 10-4 record including a win on the road at Auburn as well as wins over Jacksonville State, Middle Tennessee State, Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic. The Aggies made it to the Conference USA title game where they fell to Liberty.

Beck's offense averaged 28.7 points per game while averaging 224.9 passing yards and 204.1 rushing yards per game.

The Aggies' offense was predicated on the running game, where it had 409 rushing attempts and averaged 5.8 yards per attempt.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of that is the variety within that running game. New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia ran for 856 yards on the season while the Aggies also had two running backs run for over 500 yards on the season.

Beck's offense will need a quarterback who can run as well as a more capable offensive line to be effective but has the potential to be exactly what Vanderbilt needs; something that it can use to form its offensive identity and something that can help to narrow the gap between the Commodores and the rest of the SEC.

Expect to see more motion, more deception, more eye-candy and more flair out of Vanderbilt's offense in 2024 than it had in 2023. Expect a running game and quirky scheme that Vanderbilt will try to take pride in.

Now, does that mean it will have more results? Not necessarily. Conference USA is far from the SEC. We also have no idea what Vanderbilt's offensive personnel will look like.

There's no guarantee of success with a fully flipped roster and a program that just went 2-10, but this feels like the right type of hire at the right time for Vanderbilt.