For LSU junior middle linebacker Kendell Beckwith, timing is everything.
As a collegiate football player, the timing wasn’t right when he stepped foot in Baton Rouge. It wasn’t right when he played his first game in Tiger Stadium. It wasn’t right when he made his first tackle or first sack. It wasn’t right when he began his sophomore season.
But by game seven of the 2014 season against Florida – his first career start – the time was finally right. For a team that plays a plethora of young players, the long wait to command the middle of LSU’s defense, a position he always wanted to play, never bothered him.
“It wasn’t as frustrating as some people may think,” Beckwith said at SEC Media Days, “because I feel like it was all about timing. I feel like it was the right time for me to step in and play that role. I know it was the seventh game of the season. But I know, personally, I wasn’t as crisp as I should have been early on in the season.”
The Clinton, Louisiana, native’s impact in that 30-27 road win against the Gators was the springboard for a defense that finished the season first in the SEC and top-10 nationally in total defense. But his biggest game came, possibly, in the defense’s best overall showing two weeks later.
The SEC Defensive Player of the Week had a team-high 11 total tackles, which was the same amount he had his entire freshman season, in a 10-7 win against then-undefeated Ole Miss. He followed that performance with a crucial, fourth-quarter fumble recovery in LSU’s 20-13 overtime loss to Alabama the next week. He then averaged seven tackles in his final three games with a total of 3 ½ tackles for losses.
“If you watched his tackles the back half of that season,” said LSU coach Les Miles, “they were the tackles that were violent and drove the ball back the other way.”
By the end of his second year with the Tigers, Beckwith finished second on the team in tackles with 77, including 7 ½ tackles for losses, and cemented himself as one of the key returning pieces to defensive coordinator John Chavis’ group. But Chavis, the man who recruited him to stay in state, had other plans.
Chavis exited Baton Rouge for the same position with Texas A&M, leaving Beckwith in an awkward position. After all, he considered Chavis a “father figure,”, but new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele made the transition seamless.
Steele, who is also the linebackers coach, is especially tough on Beckwith, seeing his potential not only as an NFL-caliber player but also a leader on this team. Beckwith often hears his position coach preach to him about being a “professional” on the field.
“He coaches me hard,” Beckwith said. “He treats me like a professional. He tells me all the time to practice like a professional. Anytime I do a play and mess something up, he comes to me and says, ‘Look man, you need to be a professional.’ That’s real special.”
But it’s not just Beckwith that Miles is impressed with. The 11th-year coach called the linebacker group “the biggest [and] fastest” that he’s ever had, which includes seniors and likely-starters Deion Jones and Lamar Louis.
Beckwith, though, is the quiet leader, learning to speak his mind more when necessary. If he’s able to do that, Miles’ expectations couldn’t be any higher.
“He has real leadership ability,” Miles said. “Our guys will enjoy playing with him in that huddle. I think that he fits right in with really the finest linebackers that we’ve had.”
You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR.