Film Room: Terry Beckner Jr.
Matt Hamilton works for NFL Network and has watched countless hours of film at the high school, college and professional level. He has done film reviews of Mizzou commits for PowerMizzou.com in the past. Hamilton will break down the entire 2015 Mizzou recruiting class soon. Today, we start with a closer look at the headliner of the class.
Terry Beckner Jr., DT, EAST ST. LOUIS, IL, 6-foot-4, 300 lbs
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Strengths: Beckner is a phenomenal athlete with SEC-ready size. He is explosive off the snap and was virtually unblockable at the high school level. His two most impressive traits are his explosiveness and his quick feet. He will excel as a pass rusher right away because of this. Is active with his hands in pass rush situations, shedding blocks and using a wide-array of moves to get after the QB. Not a one-trick pony in that regard. In the run game, he shoots gaps and has a nose for the ball. Very good motor and seems to give maximum effort every play.
Weaknesses: Beckner's biggest weakness to me is the use of his hands in the run game. The few times he can't shoot the gap and does get blocked (which will happen at the next level) he does a poor job of shocking and using his hands to manipulate the blocker. While it works for him to rely solely on his explosiveness in high school, he will need to improve his technique in order to control gaps. As explosive as he is, he does end up over-running the ball at times and missed some tackles in high school as a result. He will need to learn how to harness his speed and quickness.
Overall Picture: Beckner's strengths translate very well to the college level and his weaknesses are very fixable. There is no reason why he can't join the rotation right away, but it's scary to think what he will look like after a year in the weight room with Coach Ivey. Having athletic DTs like Beckner and Brantley on the field in pass rushing situations will soften the blow of losing elite pass rushers like Ray and Golden and Beckner's addition really bolsters the d-line's depth heading into next season. One of the reasons Mizzou's d-line has been so incredibly successful is because of their ability to rotate and have little to no drop-off in talent. Beckner will ensure that the Tigers continue to have that level of depth, at least as far as the D-Tackle position is concerned.
Look for Hamilton's breakdown of the rest of the Mizzou class in the coming days.