A key in TE Vokolek’s decision to return to Huskers? Knowing Sean Beckton would be back, too | Football

As the 2021 football season progressed, Travis Vokolek, like many others, started to realize that change was likely within the Nebraska program.

Sure enough, in November, four offensive assistant coaches were fired. A couple of weeks later, Vokolek’s teammate and close friend Austin Allen decided he was off to the NFL after being named the Big Ten’s tight end of the year.

Vokolek, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound tight end, had several factors to consider when deciding whether to turn pro or return for a sixth collegiate season. He knew he’d be in a position to be the featured tight end in NU’s offense — though that offense would be changing some under a new coordinator — and he knew he was set to have postseason shoulder surgery.

But one factor figured as much or more than any other in Vokolek’s decision ultimately to return to the Huskers: NU tight ends coach Sean Beckton told Vokolek he would remain on the staff in 2022.

“That was a big factor in me coming back,” Vokolek told the Journal Star recently. “Coach Beck has done a tremendous job with our room and my relationship with him has been very strong. I wanted to make sure he was going to be here. He said he’s going to be here and be here for as long as he can. It’s definitely great that he was one of the guys that returned.

“I’m really looking forward to this year and just continuing to learn from him, because he really knows his stuff.”

Players and coaches alike tend to hold Beckton in high regard. Frost certainly did, when he ensured that the veteran assistant coach was the only member of his offensive staff that made it through a significant change in course this offseason.

“Coach Beckton is really good and he’s been a huge part in what we’ve been doing for six years,” head coach Scott Frost said in November.

Added Vokolek, “I’ve said this many times, he’s just really personable. He cares about you outside of practices and workouts and stuff. ‘What are you up to?’ He’s constantly checking up on you and on your family and stuff. He just has a really caring relationship with his players and I think that’s why guys want to play for him.”

There’s still been plenty of change for the pair and the young group of tight ends this spring, but Vokolek said that having Beckton, who was fluent in the old stuff and is learning the new stuff right along with the players, has helped in differentiating the nuances and slight terminology differences that offensive coordinator Mark Whipple and the revamped staff have introduced.

“There’s some overlap with terms we used last year that we’re using this year but mean different things, so that’s tough, but Beck’s done a great job helping us,” Vokolek said.

Beckton’s adjustment to the new staff took some time, but he said by the outset of spring ball that it started to feel natural.

“I’ve been around a lot of different coaching staffs,” Beckton said. “For me, I blend in with everybody who I associate with. Obviously, when I first get around in a group, I try to sit back and see, particularly Whipple, sort of being the head guy in that group, seeing how he ticks. So I was a little quiet initially, trying to figure out what he wanted. We’ve meshed pretty well.

“Obviously, I was close with those guys that are no longer here, because we started out down at UCF with those guys, so it’s a little bit different.”

Still, the bottom line has a familiar ring to it.

“But the mentality is still the same,” Beckton said.

“We all want to win, want to execute and have one of the better offenses in the Big Ten.”