2011 Toledo Spring Football Prospectus - University of Toledo ...

Q & A With Tim BeckmanA big change from your first year and part of yoursecond year has been the addition of the FettermanTraining Center. What is your perspective on theimportance of an indoor facility now that you’ve beenusing it for a year?Beckman: This is the time of year that having an indoorfacility is so big, when you are fine-tuning your skills inthe off-season. We’ve also gone to a morning workoutschedule, with everything happening from 6:00 to 11:00in the morning. Well, the weather is usually quite a bitcolder in the morning in March and April, so I think wewill be practicing in Fetterman more this year than lastyear. So I find it hard to see how anyone in the northernpart of the country can survive without an indoor facility.And I think ours is as good as any in the country.How are the players enjoying getting up earlyand working out in the morning instead of theafternoon?Beckman: Well, we did a few early workouts last yearso it’s not completely new. But I think they’ve enjoyed itmore. They know that by 10 or 11 o’clock we’re eatingbrunch together and then they are done with football forthe day and they can focus on academics.Now let’s talk about what to expect on the field thisspring. You had two quarterbacks who had successat the position last year, Austin Dantin and TerranceOwens. Who is going to be the starting quarterbacknext fall?Beckman: That’s going to be an interesting situation.We will list them both at No. 1 on our depth chart andlet them compete for the position. Austin Dantin wasour starting quarterback when he got hurt and I don’tbelieve players should lose their positions because ofan injury. Now, Terrance Owens had a remarkable fivegames at the end of the season, so he definitely has theopportunity to be our starter. There’s going to be a lotof competition at quarterback, no doubt about it. We’veactually got four guys who are capable of playing thatposition. (Junior) David Pasquale has the capabilities ofbeing a good quarterback. Nobody knows about (redshirtfreshman) Dwight Macon, but he has the capability ofbeing a good quarterback. Depth-wise, we’re probablyas good as we’ve ever been at quarterback. We mayplay different quarterbacks for different situations andin different packages. You see more and more of thataround the country.Terrance finished the season so strongly that somefans may have forgotten how successful Austin wasearlier in the season.Beckman: Austin won seven football games for us overtwo seasons. He played very well for us last year. He hadan outstanding game against Purdue. He really was theMVP of that game.What do you think of the theory that if you have twoquarterbacks, then you really don’t even have one?Beckman: I don’t think that’s true in today’s game. Guysget injured. More teams are playing multiple quarterbacks.We have two quarterbacks who have proved they can winfootball games. That’s a strength for this team.Does having two quarterbacks make it harder foropposing defenses to prepare their game plan?Beckman: I think so because they are two different kindsof quarterbacks. Terrance is more of an arm guy whileAustin is more of leg guy. They are both winners andmanage the offense well. Austin has had a little bit of anexperience advantage because he played as freshman,but T.O. gained a lot of experience last year. They arevery close in terms of overall ability. We’ll just have tosee how they do in the 15 spring practices and then againin August.Austin missed the second half of the season due to ashoulder injury? Is he 100 percent?Beckman: Yes. Austin maybe could have played in thebowl game if we needed him, but we did not want to rushhim back in until we felt he was fully recovered.Sticking with the offense, you have three experiencedrunning backs, including senior Adonis Thomas, whowas arguably the best running back in the league by