Even as twins, Noah and Mathis Beck certainly aren’t the same kind of football players, serving as Carroll Academy’s version of thunder and lightning.
But one thing is certain, even though they are different, they are both really good football players. Even this past week, both players were named to the All-MAIS Preseason football team.
While Mathis is a little bigger and Noah is a little flashier, it’s uncanny how close they are in career production.
“We were looking at career stats between him and Noah, and they both have 20 touchdowns apiece, and they both have around 1,500 career yards,” Carroll coach Bo Milton said. “It’s just crazy that they are even without even trying to be. We have about four or five guys we are going to have to hang our hat on, and they are two of those guys.”
The Beck twins are the last of four Becks that Milton has coached at Carroll. Despite being really competitive as shown by their almost daily competition to see who has the biggest bicep, they are still brothers.
“In junior high, Noah was 12 and Mathis was 51 so they were mirror images of each other,” Milton said. “I thought that was pretty cool, and they did it on purpose. Mathis was all-state last year, and Noah wasn’t and I thought he should have. But Noah was just as pumped for Mathis making it. They are really supportive of each other, and that just makes the dynamic cool. There is no jealousy there, and they are supportive of their teammates. That’s the biggest dynamic between them is they support their teammates. They may talk trash to each other but nobody else better.”
The workhorse
Mathis plays fullback for the Rebels and outside linebacker. On offense, he rushed for 658 yards and seven TDs and was named to the Class 4A All-MAIS team.
“Mathis is the workhorse of the two,” Milton said. “If we need some tough yards, we are going to hand it off to the 195-pound fullback that is coming downhill and going to bull his way to some tough yardage. That’s just kind of him. He could also move to a tailback position because he’s not slow. He’s not your typical lumbering fullback. We throw the ball to him. We will put him in some slow. He’s another one of those kids that can move around and play several positions.”
Last year, Mathis led the Rebels with 88 tackles, including an incredible 20 tackles for loss.
“On defense, he’s strong side outside linebacker and you probably aren’t running over there a whole lot,” Milton said. “You can put a tight end over there and he’s going to walk up on the tight end. He’s going to stuff him and get off the block and make the tackle. He’s that kid and he never says a word. He just plays hard and ultra competitive like his brothers were.”
While brother Noah had his struggles last year, Mathis was Mr. Consistency.
“He is another one of those kids we are going to have to rely on,” Milton said. “He was as consistent as anybody we had in all 11 games we played last year. There was very few games where you said it didn’t look like him. I thought he played really good last year.”
Mathis might have had better offensive numbers if he would have played every game at fullback.
“Mathis did play some interior line last year.,” Milton said. “He played line in junior high. Covid hit last year and he had to play. He played guard the first two games and then got everybody back. We were missing him in the backfield. He will play wherever and all these kids are like that. They just want to win and I think that attitude has carried over to the group behind them, they just want to win.”
The showman
Noah, who is the smaller of the two by a few pounds, is certainly the flashier of the twins. As a sophomore, Noah had 11 interceptions to lead the team.
This past season, Beck led the Carroll offense as receiver with 530 yards and seven touchdowns.
“He just makes plays,” Milton said. "He caught a ball at Winston and was hit at three yards, gets hit at five yards and then ends up getting a first down. He just makes plays. He had a great game against Winston, I think he had three touchdowns that game with like seven or eight catches. And that’s what I expect out of him this season. I expect him to have five or six catches and four or five runs. I think he has to touch the ball 10 times a game. He’s got to be the guy out wide.” “He just makes plays,” Milton said. "He caught a ball at Winston and was hit at three yards, gets hit at five yards and then ends up getting a first down. He just makes plays. He had a great game against Winston, I think he had three touchdowns that game with like seven or eight catches. And that’s what I expect out of him this season. I expect him to have five or six catches and four or five runs. I think he has to touch the ball 10 times a game. He’s got to be the guy out wide.”
While Noah’s numbers are respectable, they could have been better.
“Noah started off a little slow and struggled a little bit early on,” Milton said. “He never not owned it. There were plays that he didn’t make last year that he made the year before. We could never quite figure it out. Maybe it was the hangover of a great season or maybe it was the inconsistency of our whole team. After the Tri-county game, he started catching six or seven balls a game and he was that guy again.”
One thing is certain, Noah has a nose for the football, entering his senior year with 17 career interceptions.
“Defensively, he’s a guy that has 16 or 17 career interceptions,” Milton said. “He is another kid that has a lot of snaps under his belt. You really don’t have to say much to these guys because they have played so much football. He only missed one meaningful snap last year because he got the breath knocked out of him. Other than that, he didn’t come off the field. He was on special teams, offense, defense and I don’t see that changing this year. But he is probably the guy that you can put anywhere and he is going to be successful.”
Noah finally broke out of his slump after the Tri-county game and had a monster game against Winston in the regular-season finale.
“Those last three games, Noah was a big part of that and that’s more of what we expect out of Noah,” Milton said. “I don’t know if they were feeling that pressure. We moved up and that was part of it. There were some weird things that happened early on. But you could see as the season went on, he owned it. He was always, ‘I didn’t play good enough.’ He wasn’t going to point fingers at anybody else and that’s just the kind of kid he is. The back half of the season, he was one of our better players.”
