Beckner brings new look, newfound leadership into senior season
ATLANTA — Terry Beckner Jr. looks different.
Linebacker Terez Hall realized that recently, while watching film from Missouri’s 2015 loss to Mississippi State. Hall said Beckner, then a freshman, looked “chubby as crap.” Now, after Beckner has decreased his body-fat percentage by six percent and gained nine pounds of muscle during this offseason, Hall has a different description for Beckner’s appearance.
“He’s over there looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Hall said. “He’s looking swole.”
Beckner has not only transformed his looks since he arrived on Missouri’s campus a blue-chip recruit out of East St. Louis, Illinois. He acts different, too. Hall described the freshman version of Beckner as “selfish.” He didn’t care what he ate, didn’t want to put in extra work outside practice. Now, after spurning the NFL Draft to return to Missouri for his senior season, Hall says Beckner has “done a whole 180.”
One of three Missouri players selected to represent the team at this week’s SEC Media Days (along with Hall and quarterback Drew Lock), Beckner has solidified himself as one of the team’s leaders.
“He’s earned some great respect in our locker room the way he’s handled his business, academically, socially and then on the football field,” head coach Barry Odom said of Beckner. “He’s grown up.”
Early in his college career, few people around the program would have predicted Beckner could occupy this role. Lock said Beckner “wasn’t a bad person” when he arrived on Missouri’s campus, but as a freshman, he let a few things take his focus away from football. For one thing, Beckner struggled to manage the sky-high expectations that came with being ranked the No. 5 defensive tackle in the country. He had to transition from life in East St. Louis to being one of the most recognizable figures in Columbia. And then, there were the injuries.
During a win over BYU in Week 11 of his freshman season, Beckner tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee. The following season, he tore his left ACL during a Week 7 loss to Middle Tennessee. The injuries kept him out of offseason workouts prior to both the 2016 and 2017 season. To top it off, between those two injuries, Beckner had his lowest moment as a Tiger, when he was arrested in January of 2016 for possession of marijuana.
In the more than two years since, Beckner’s teammates say he’s transformed his mindset. He no longer comes off as selfish; instead, he sets an example for his teammates by refraining from eating fast food and helping lead the team’s Saturday morning workouts during the offseason. He lists setting a positive example for children growing up in low-income areas of St. Louis as one of his goals.
“One of the most selfless guys you will ever meet,” Hall said of Beckner. “You can ask him anything. He’s one of the type of guys you can call him at 3 in the night, ‘Can you come pick me up from freaking Illinois?’ And he’ll come through and get you.”
Physically, Beckner said he feels the best he has since high school. He was able to participate in all of spring practices and offseason workouts for the first time in his college career this year. Beckner said not having to worry about physical ailments has helped him mentally, too.
“It takes your confidence through the roof, knowing you trust your body and can actually believe in your body,” he said. “So now you can just go and play without even thinking about anything.”
With that confidence in his health has come increased faith in his leadership ability. Odom and Hall both said that, since Beckner decided to return to school for his senior season, he’s been noticeably more vocal.
“I think that comes from experience, but also some confidence in himself,” Odom said. “And true confidence, not just given confidence because he was a highly-recruited guy.”
Beckner may be more vocal in the locker room this season, but no one would describe him as loud. He offered no colorful anecdotes to reporters Wednesday, nor made any outlandish guarantees. But Beckner did share one promise he made this offseason, which illustrates the person he has become.
During Beckner’s turbulent first two years on campus, he often turned to Heather Morris, an academic support staffer in the athletics department, for help. When asked about Morris Wednesday, Beckner’s reaction betrayed his affection for her. His features softened, and his eyes moistened.
Morris died in March as a result of cancer. Beckner described her as “a mother away from home.”
“(Morris was) really inspirational to me, always wanted to make me do the right thing, and any ups and downs I always had, she always was there for me,” Beckner said.
In one of the last conversations Beckner had with Morris, she told Beckner that one of her hopes for him was that he would graduate from college. Beckner promised her he would.
If Beckner does eventually walk across stage at a commencement ceremony, he’ll do so with a new physique, new aspirations, and as a newfound leader for Missouri.