Texas OC Tim Beck not traveling to Manhattan for Kansas State game due to infection

When the Texas Longhorns travel to Manhattan to face off against the Kansas State Wildcats in search of the program’s first road win there since 2002, offensive coordinator Tim Beck will not be with the team, according to trainer Anthony Pass, the school revealed on Friday.

After missing Wednesday’s press conference, Beck was hospitalized to receive treatment for an infection. He is expected to rejoin the team for Sunday’s practice.

“It’s unfortunate that Tim will not be able to be at the game with us, and we wish him a speedy recovery. We’ll pull together as coaches, and our offensive staff will call plays collaboratively,” head coach Tom Herman said.

How the Longhorns will assign play-calling duties is not known. Last year, wide receivers coach Drew Mehringer moved to the coaches box to help Beck with play calling. Since Mehringer also has experience as an offensive coordinator from his year at Rutgers, in addition to a year as the co-offensive coordinator at James Madison, he may be the assistant coach that Herman relies on to be his eye in the sky. In that scenario, Corby Meekins would remain on the field to coach the wide receivers between series.

Offensive line coach Herb Hand is another possibility since current tight ends coach Derek Warehime coached the offensive line last season, but that seems less likely, as Hand is arguably more valuable down on the field.

The bottom line is that with Beck remaining back in Austin, Herman will almost certainly take the lead role in play calling, even though he prefers not to do so, and the assistant in the box will likely be there to provide as much help as possible.