SFU Football: Clan name BYU grad Beck as offensive coordinator(video)

Burnaby, BC – The Simon Fraser University Clan football team has added some division I experience as head coach Dave Johnson has announced the hiring of Jason Beck as the teams new offensive coordinator.

“Close to 200 people applied for the job and through the course of the interview process it became obvious that Jason was of a different pedigree,” said head coach Dave Johnson. “He grew up playing in California and went on to play at Brigham Young before he started his coaching career with BYU.”

Beck brings with him eight years of experience in division I football as a player and a coach.

“Jason’s personality fits in with our culture. We invest in our players as people. We talk about being better husbands, fathers, employees and so on. We hold guys to a very high standard but we do it from a place of support, Jason shares the same philosophy,” continued Johnson.

Beck spent the last three seasons as the quarterbacks coach at Weber State of the Big Sky Conference.

While at Weber, his quarterbacks consistently led one of the best offences in the NCAA’s Football Championship Series.

His quarterback while at Weber, Cameron Higgins, is the Big Sky Conference’s all-time leader in touchdowns with 98 and is Weber State’s all-time passing leader with 12,252 yards.

“Adding Jason to an already strong coaching staff in addition to the players we have here really strengthens us on the offensive side of the ball. We haven’t just gotten a little better, we’ve gotten a lot better,” finished Johnson.

In addition to being the quarterbacks coach at Weber, Beck was also responsible for academics.

“I haven’t been here long but I’m really enjoying it so far,” said Beck. “The city, the university and most of all the players have all been great. I’m very impressed by the quality of the individuals we have here.”

In 2008 and 2009, Beck was an offensive graduate assistant coach with the Louisiana State University Tigers.

While at LSU, he was part of a Tigers program whose offence set 10 school records and averaged 38.6 points per game.

Prior to joining LSU, Beck was an offensive graduate assistant at Brigham Young.

“I like to play a pro-style offence where we’ll be able to run and pass the ball,” continued Beck. “That allows us to be unpredictable, be explosive, to put up points and have a lot of success. After meeting the players and watching some film I’ve learned that our athletes are versatile. We have a diverse group of players and we’ll be able to take advantage of their strengths.”

From 2004-2006, Beck was the backup quarterback at Brigham Young, playing behind current Washington Redskins quarterback John Beck.

He was part of the BYU team that won the Las Vegas Bowl in 2006 and 2007 and was first in total offence and scoring in the Mountain West Conference.

His first stop in college football was at the College of the Canyons where he was the quarterback for one year for the junior college Cougars.

That season, the Cougars went undefeated and were the top ranked team in the country while Beck earned All-American honours.

Beck will get to work with the Clan right away, as the Clan are currently in their spring training sessions.

“I have a belief and a philosophy on how I like to do things but I really view this as a teaching role as we work with these young men to do the things we believe will lead us all to success,” finished Beck.