John Beck (football player)

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John Beck
Personal Info
Date of Birth 1981-08-21
Place of Birth Hayward, California
Height 6' 2"
Weight 212 pounds
Player Information
Position Quarterback
Number 12
School Brigham Young University
Bowl Games
2005 Las Vegas Bowl (lost 35-28)
2006 Las Vegas Bowl (Won 38-8, game MVP)
NFL Draft
Not Yet Drafted
Teams Played For
Brigham Young Cougars

John Beck (born August 21, 1981) is the starting quarterback for Brigham Young University football team.

Born in Hayward, California, his parents Wendell (a former track and field athlete for BYU) and Julie Beck moved to Arizona. He first started playing football as a child at eight years old, and later became an Eagle Scout. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lisbon, Portugal from 2000 through 2002. In May of 2004 he married Barbara Burke of Ferron, Utah.

Contents

[edit] High School Years

Beck attended Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona, before being recruited by BYU. He received Outstanding Male Scholar Athlete honors at Mountain View High School, a three-year letterwinner, and led Mountain View High School to a state championship as a senior. His overall record was 25-2 during his junior and senior seasons. Beck earned first-team all-region, first-team all-state, USA Today All-American honorable mention and Dairyman first-team All-America honors. He was named the region Offensive Player of the Year and garnered first-team Super All-State and Super All-State Player-of-the-Year honors. Beck was further recognized as the Arizona High School Football Player of the Year and earned both the Ed Dougherty and Fred Enke Awards (Arizona Quarterback of the Year). During his senior year, he was named the MVP during the state championship game and selected as the Arizona All-Star game Most Valuable Player. Fox Sports has recognized Beck as the Arizona 5A Player of the Year. Beck also currently holds the Arizona high school record with 42 touchdown completions in a single season with only 4 interceptions. Beyond football, Beck also lettered twice in baseball as a pitcher and an infielder.

[edit] Brigham Young University

As a 22-year old true freshman, Beck earned Academic All-Mountain West honors and competed in eight games, including four starts, becoming only the second true freshman to start at quarterback in BYU history (vs. Stanford), completing 22-of-45 attempts for a season-high 279 yards against the Cardinal, including a season-long 56-yard bomb to Rodney Wilkerson. His first career victory occurred on Oct. 4, leading the Cougars to a 44-36 win at San Diego State. He later saw action at fourth-ranked USC, completing one pass for 12 yards and carrying the ball four times for 29 yards..

While a sophomore, Beck earned second-team All-Mountain West honors and started at quarterback in 10 of the Cougars' 11 games during the season. He broke the Mountain West Conference and BYU single-game record with 67 pass attempts against UNLV on Oct. 8 and currently holds the MWC single-game sophomore record with 34 completions against UNLV. Beck averaged a MWC-best 261.0 yards per game against league opponents and averaged 233.0 yards per game against all opponents. He was named the MWC Offensive Player of the Week after leading the Cougars to a 41-24 win over Air Force. Against San Diego State, Beck posted BYU's highest quarterback rating since early in the 2001 season at 204.8. He also passed the 3,000-yard mark as a sophomore, ranking as the Cougars' third most prolific sophomore quarterback, while passing for at least one 50+ yard completion in six of eleven games.

As a junior, Beck was an All-Mountain West Conference first-team selection, named Academic All-MWC and named team offensive MVP. He threw for a league-best 3,709 yards, marking the most yards by a BYU quarterback since Brandon Doman threw for over 3,500 yards in 2001. Beck was ranked fifth nationally with a league-best 309.1 yards-per-game average, including a league-high 517 yards against TCU on Sept. 24. Beck was twice named the MWC Offensive Player or the Week. He also set MWC single-game records with (i) 41 completions (vs. Boston College on Sept. 3) and (ii) 517 yards passing (vs. TCU on Sept. 24). He tied a MWC single-game record with five TD's (vs. TCU on Sept. 24) and was ranked second all-time in the Mountain West with 7,136 career passing yards and first in the Mountain West with 3,709 yards in 2005. Beck was a 2005 Davey O'Brien Award candidate and rated as the top passing quarterback in the MWC by Street & Smith's. College Football News listed Beck as one of the top-30 players in the Mountain West Conference, while Phil Steele's College Football Preview ranked him as one of the top-40 quarterbacks in the country.


As a senior, Beck was ranked as the 2nd best quarterback in the country by ESPN as measured in quarterback efficiency ratings (173.27)[1] and 5th best by CBS as measured by its player rating system.[2] (The "rating system" mentioned here is not a rating system at all, but rather a webpage that allows one to sort a list of quarterbacks by various statistics. The default sorting is by total passing yards.). He led BYU to a record of 10-2, with a 8-0 record in the Mountain West Conference. He was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien and Unitas Golden Arm Awards, and created buzz on the Heisman watch lists. One site that tracks college football had him #4 on the Heisman watch list.[3] He was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Offensive Player of the week following the come-from-behind victory over Utah on the last game of the 2006 season.[4]

On Nov. 25, 2006 Beck led the Cougars to his first victory over in-state rival University of Utah Utes by completing a TD pass to TE Jonny Harline as time expired. With three seconds left on the clock, Beck dropped back, shuffled left, was pressured by a blitzing linebacker, then scrambled right (nearly 11 seconds in all) before tossing back across the field to Harline, who was standing alone in the endzone.[1] Beck finished the game with 387 passing yards and 4 TD's.

Beck led the Cougars to their first bowl win since 1996, a 38 to 8 romp of the Oregon Ducks in the Las Vegas Bowl, at the end of the '06 season. The win was made in large part because of Beck and runningback Curtis Brown. Beck totaled 375 yards and two scores and also had 26 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Beck's main target, Jonny Harline, was named the MVP after a 181 yard and 1 touchdown performance.

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Passing

Year Games Attempts Completions Comp % Yards Avg TDs Interceptions QB Rating
2003 8 145 73 50.3% 864 6.0 5 5 104.9
2004 11 343 192 56.0% 2563 7.5 15 8 128.5
2005 12 513 331 64.5% 3709 7.2 27 13 137.6
2006 12 417 289 69.3% 3885 9.3 32 8 169.1

[edit] References

John Beck Stats. DI Statistics. NCAA (2006-10-30). Retrieved on 2006-10-30.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ ESPN, NCAA Division I-A Statistics, Nov. 27, 2006, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/statistics
  2. ^ CBS Sportsline, Sortable Player Statistics, Nov. 27, 2006, http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/stats/playersort/NCAAF/QB
  3. ^ Todd Erikson, Fourth and inches..., Real Football 365, Nov. 23, 2006, http://www.realfootball365.com/college/articles/2006/11/fourth_and_inches_2.html
  4. ^ Beck named national player of week 11/27, Daily Herald, Nov. 27, 2006, http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/201365/3/

[edit] External links