Efficient Beecher becomes a good fit in LU's offense

Tommy Beecher knew Ervin Garner would be open. The two took one look at VMI’s coverage Saturday night and realized that the Keydets’ safeties were dropping down in run support. Garner is quick, and once he made a move to get past the safeties and into one-on-one coverage with the cornerbacks, it was too late to adjust.

The Keydets blitzed anyway, and Liberty’s offensive line protected just long enough for Beecher to launch the ball over the middle to a spot where he knew Garner would be. Forty-six yards later, Liberty was in position to score the touchdown that would put the Flames up 24-7, plenty of cushion on a night that the Keydets couldn’t hold onto the football.

That Beecher made the throw wasn’t remarkable. As Flames coach Danny Rocco has said since Beecher stepped foot on Liberty’s campus in August, the quarterback has all of the tools. But the timing and rapport with a brand new group of receivers? That doesn’t happen instantaneously. It’s clear as the Flames head into the final two weeks of their season that Beecher has found a comfort level with just about everyone in Liberty’s receiving corps.

“Before, because he came in during the summer, there wasn’t a lot of time to learn the system,” Garner said. “I think at first, he might have been hesitant making some throws. Maybe at the beginning of the year, plays like I made Saturday, they might have been there, but he might not have taken them because he wasn’t comfortable with me or my route running, because the chemistry really wasn’t there.”

Beecher hasn’t been spectacular this season, mostly because the Flames haven’t asked him to be. Liberty has enough offensive options that it doesn’t need Beecher to sit in the pocket and fling the ball 40 times a game. But he’s been startlingly efficient, completing 68.2 percent of his passes, by far the best mark in the Big South.

And when he’s needed to throw deep passes, he’s made them. His deep ball to Chris Summers set up the Flames’ only touchdown against James Madison in September. And the 46-yard pass to Garner on Saturday punished VMI for continually selling out to stop the run.

The tools have always been there. He threw for 3,600 yards and 40 touchdowns as a senior at Concord High School in North Carolina, leading his team to a Class 3A state championship. Colleges took notice, including Gardner-Webb, Liberty’s upcoming opponent.

“I thought he was a good player,” said Bulldogs coach Steve Patton, who offered Beecher a scholarship. “One thing I liked about him was that he had a 4.0 grade point average and he was well thought of by the entire student body, coaches and players. We were familiar with Tommy in high school, certainly.”

Beecher spent time at Patton’s football camps at Gardner-Webb when he was younger, learning basic quarterback technique and footwork. Some other Division I-A schools were interested — Duke, North Carolina and Army among others. But once Steve Spurrier showed some interest in Beecher, the recruiting process was over.

Beecher was smitten.

“I had never seen a South Carolina football game before I committed down there,” Beecher said. “I had maybe driven through Columbia, but I had never been down there. But coach Spurrier was just coming out of the NFL. I used to watch Florida football games and think about how much fun it would be to be in that type of offense. Then the opportunity presented itself. It was one I couldn’t pass up.”

The rest of the story is well worn by now. Beecher played in 17 games for the Gamecocks, won the starting job heading into his senior season, promptly lost it by throwing four interceptions in South Carolina’s season-opening win over North Carolina State, got thrown under the bus publicly by Spurrier and eventually chose to transfer when it became clear he’d never take another snap for the Gamecocks.

He nearly quit football altogether to go into insurance, but he said he had unfinished business on the football field, and he wanted to enroll in Liberty’s seminary school. So he came to Lynchburg to use his final year of eligibility.

Once at Liberty, the former Gamecock united with a former Tiger — Liberty offensive coordinator and former Clemson QB Brandon Streeter — in hopes of reviving his career. There were subtle differences between the schemes run at Liberty and South Carolina, but the biggest change for Beecher was that Streeter made all of the pre-snap checks and calls from the press box. At South Carolina, Spurrier expected the quarterbacks to make those checks at the line of scrimmage and change plays if necessary.

“He had to do a lot more changing of plays and memorizing … so it was a little bit more complex in that regard,” Streeter said. “Here, we handle the checks as coaches. That takes a little more pressure off of him, and it allows him to remain calm and execute a little bit better.”

That’s helped Beecher quickly pick up the Flames’ offense. It would have been easy to be overwhelmed trying to learn a new system in a month’s time, but by leaving those audible responsibilities to the coaching staff, Beecher was able to concentrate on learning the basic plays and terminology of the offense, as well as developing a rapport with a new receiving corps.

Mike Brown, the starter at quarterback coming out of spring practice, was Beecher’s biggest ally in August.

The two spent tons of time in the film room, and Brown’s knowledge of the offense not only helped Beecher learn, but it helped the two develop a quick quarterback-receiver relationship.

“That just comes from us watching film together and being on the same page,” Brown said. “I think it helps with me being a quarterback, knowing what he’s looking at and what reads he’s making, just trying to get to an open spot.”

As Beecher’s knowledge of the offense has grown, his play has become even more steady. He hasn’t thrown an interception since the Oct. 3 game against West Virginia Wesleyan, and in Liberty’s last four games, he’s completed 61 of 82 passes (74.4 percent) for 592 yards and four touchdowns.

And as the Flames head into the most crucial part of their season, the coaches know that stable play at the most important position on the field isn’t an issue.

Said Streeter: “I think it’s amazing what he has done in the short amount of time that he’s been here, in terms of understanding and picking up the offense and then going out there and performing. I think he’s gaining more and more confidence each week. I think it comes down to mastering the offense, and he’s getting closer and closer to doing that.”