NC State, Dave Doeren overhaul offensive coaching staff by adding veteran playcaller
N.C. State had two offensive coordinators last season. It will have only one — a new one — for the 2020 season.
Tim Beck was hired by the Wolfpack on Wednesday to be the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Beck held the same roles at Texas for the previous three seasons. He has also been the playcaller at Ohio State and Nebraska.
Beck’s hiring, a two-year contract worth $700,000 annually, ends the one-year experiment with Des Kitchings and George McDonald as co-coordinators. The Wolfpack ranked No. 107 in scoring offense and went 4-8 in 2019. They were the only ACC team that didn’t score at least 28 points in a conference game this season.
McDonald will remain on Dave Doeren’s staff as receivers coach. Kitchings, who was the only holdover from Tom O’Brien’s staff in 2012, was let go.
Kurt Roper, who was hired after the 2018 season to coach the quarterbacks, will replace Kitchings as the running backs coach. McDonald will replace Kitchings as the recruiting coordinator.
Kitchings had been one of Doeren’s top recruiters and was particularly important to the program’s in-state success. He is owed about $492,000 for the remaining year on his contract.
Kitchings and McDonald were promoted after the 2018 season when Eli Drinkwitz was hired as Appalachian State’s head coach. The Wolfpack offense sputtered this season without quarterback Ryan Finley and with key injuries to both starting tackles and tight end Dylan Autenrieth.
N.C. State went from No. 8 (313.2 yards per game) in the country in passing offense in 2018 with Finley and Drinkwitz (who has since been hired by Missouri) to No. 67 (229.1 ypg) with a rotating cast of quarterbacks and the co-coordinators.
Beck, 53, and Doeren worked together at Kansas in 2005. The Longhorns finished a disappointing 8-5 season under third-year coach Tom Herman with a 38-10 upset of No. 11 Utah in the Alamo Bowl on Tuesday night.
“I am so excited to bring Tim Beck to NC State to run our offense,” Doeren said. “I have known Tim for over 20 years and know that he is a difference maker who demonstrates what a leader, motivator, and connector is all about. He will take our offense and build it around the strengths of our personnel. It will be versatile, aggressive, and player-friendly.
“Tim has worked with some of the best offensive coaches in the game at both Ohio State and Texas and I look forward to seeing him run his stuff here. Since our time together at the University of Kansas I have wanted to work with him. He is also one of the best recruiters in college football.”
Their problems weren’t on offense. They ranked No. 17 in the country in scoring (35.2 points per game) and No. 24 in yards per play (6.4). N.C. State ranked No. 106 in yards per play (5.1).
The moves on Wednesday nearly complete a staff makeover by Doeren, who will enter his eighth season with different primary coordinators on both sides of the ball.
Doeren has hired three new assistants (Beck, cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell and safeties coach Joe DeForest) with a defensive line assistant still to be filled.
All of the changes mean only McDonald and defensive backs coach Aaron Henry remain on Doeren’s staff from the successful back-to-back 9-4 seasons in 2017 and ‘18.
This story was originally published January 1, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
