Report: Vanderbilt expected to hire New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck as their OC

The Vanderbilt Commodores are expected to hire New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported on Saturday evening. The Dores are expected to hire Beck as their offensive coordinator. He spent the majority of his career at Division II Pittsburg State, including 10 years as the school’s head coach.

Beck helped guide the New Mexico State Aggies to double-digit wins this season, the first time they’ve done that since 1960.

It should be noted that this Tim Beck is a different one than the current head coach for Coastal Carolina. Beck has spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the NMSU Aggies. In 2021, he was an offensive analyst for the TCU Horned Frogs. And before that, he spent from 1987-2019 at Pittsburg State.

The Aggies will also be losing their defensive backs coach, Cliff Odom, to Mississippi State. Odom is going to be the Bulldogs’ new special teams coordinator, according to Pete Thamel. Odom, along with coaching defensive backs for New Mexico State, has also coached at UCF and Eastern Illinois. He’s been a graduate assistant at Missouri and TCU, as well.

New Mexico State was whipped by Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl, 37-10 on Saturday.

More background and information on Tim Beck

The Aggies finished with a record of 10-5 overall. Before their bowl game, NMSU ranked ninth in the country in yards per play, 57th in points per game, and 19th in yards per pass attempt. New Mexico State also pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2023 college football season–defeating Auburn 31-10.

Beck led Pittsburg State to the Division II National Championship in 2011 in just his second year there as the head man. He also happened to post winning records in all 10 seasons that he was the head coach there.

Vanderbilt had a 2-10 season in which their offense struggled mightily. The school fired their old offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach Joey Lynch, a few weeks ago. The Commodores have also had an extensive number of their players enter the transfer portal–17 as of writing this article. It’s a big reason why Vanderbilt currently sits 65th in On3’s College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings.

Clark Lea posted a 2-10 record in his first year as the head coach of Vandy. In year two, he went 5-7. And this season, year three, he took a step back to 2-10 again.

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.