Even Devin Leary has his own Youngstown connection

A previous connection with wide receivers coach Scott Woodward played a big role in NC State transfer quarterback Devin Leary landing at Kentucky. The former four-star recruit out of New Jersey was recruited by Woodward in high school and the former quality control assistant at Pittsburgh has strong ties in that area.

But that is not the only connection that Leary had with the Kentucky coaching staff. Once again, the Youngstown (Ohio) Cardinal Mooney coaching tree showed us their branches reach a long way.

Tim Beck was named NC State’s offensive coordinator in 2020 and spent three years in the ACC working for head coach Dave Doeren. During that run, Leary served as Beck’s QB1 and the Wolfpack went 17-4 over those three years in games that Leary started. That success helped land Beck the head coaching job at Coastal Carolina. But long before his time spent as an offensive coordinator at Nebraska (2011-14), Ohio State (2015-16), Texas (2017-19), and NC State. But long before that, Beck was a classmate of Mark Stoops and Vince Marrow at Cardinal Mooney.

While that relationship didn’t play a role in the recruitment, Beck made sure to reach out to Leary following his commitment to let his former quarterback know that he is now in good hands.

“Coach Beck reached out to me and just congratulated me and just told me his past relationship with Coach Stoops and his brother Coach Mark,” Leary told KSR on Wednesday. “He just told me that I’m in great hands. They took good care of him when he was a rising coach and it’s pretty cool to see that full circle now.”

Stoops and Marrow are joined by safeties coach Frank Buffano as Cardinal Mooney alums on the Kentucky coaching staff. Leary’s previously relationship with Beck could make his transition to Kentucky easier.

The Cardinal Mooney guys are everywhere in college football.