Beathard family reunion set for Sept. 5 at Kinnick

At some point this week in Nashville, Tenn., Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard probably ran into and said hello to his uncle. It's summer break and football players have a few weeks off before winding their way back to Iowa City for summer workouts.

OK, the Iowa quarterback will likely say hello to his uncle. What's the big deal?

Kurt Beathard happens to be the offensive coordinator for Illinois State. The Illinois State that was 38 seconds from an FCS national title last season and the Illinois State that will be on the sideline opposite the Hawkeyes in their season opener Sept. 5 at Kinnick Stadium.

That Illinois State.

'Jokingly, we've talked about it,” Kurt Beathard said during a recruiting trip last week. 'This weekend I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more. I don't think it's really set in. He's not home yet and I'm recruiting now. He gets back this weekend from school. I know everyone is coming to the game.”

So, that's kind of an odd convergence. Let's look at the roads taken.

Kurt Beathard has started his second season at Illinois State, where he's the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Beathard has spent 12 years as an FCS offensive coordinator, with stops at Youngstown State, Gardner-Webb (2012), Eastern Kentucky (2003-06), Bucknell (2002) and Western Carolina (1996-2001). He has coached in the Ohio Valley Conference, Southern Conference, Patriot League and Colonial Athletic Association in FCS circles.

From 2007-09, Beathard was on Ron Zook's staff at Illinois, where he worked with quarterbacks in 2009 and the wide receivers from 2007-08. Illinois' offense had some of the school's most productive seasons in its history, helping the Illini to the 2008 Rose Bowl. In ‘07, the Illini set the season school record for total offensive yards.

Illinois State head coach Brock Spack was a longtime defensive coordinator at Purdue. The Big Ten connections brought Beathard to Bloomington.

Beathard inherited quarterback Tre Roberson. Yes, that Tre Roberson, the Tre Roberson who as a true freshman put up 281 yards of total offense for Indiana against the Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium in 2011. Last season for the Redbirds, Roberson rolled up 4,250 yards of total offense (3,221 through the air) and accounted for 41 TDs (30 TD passes to just 10 interceptions).

'He's a great person and a great leader,” Beathard said. 'He's good to be around. He wants to play, compete and be on the field. He got better every week for us during the season, which really helped us get to where we were, the national championship.”

Yes, the national championship. The Redbirds allowed North Dakota State to score a TD with 38 seconds left - about a minute after Roberson gave ISU a lead with a 58-yard TD run - and fell 29-27.

This isn't a slouch FCS coming into Kinnick next fall.

The C.J. Beathard side of this meeting you already know fairly well. The junior was named starter in January. Senior Jake Rudock graduated and transferred to Michigan. It was Beathard's job in January and now it's really Beathard's job. He's the only QB on Iowa's roster who's taken a snap in a game.

'At some point I knew he was going to be the starter,” Kurt Beathard said of his nephew. 'Of course, I'm biased, obviously, but I thought he was a pretty good quarterback. It wasn't the way I thought it would come.”

Kurt and C.J.'s dad, Casey, are brothers. Their dad, C.J.'s grandfather, Bobby Beathard started the football part of the family business. He spent 38 years in the NFL and had teams compete in seven Super Bowls. He was director of player personnel for the great Miami championship teams of 1971-72. He was GM when Washington won three Super Bowls with three different QBs (and reached a fourth). He took over an awful Chargers franchise and built it up into a Super Bowl outfit in 1995.

'I grew up in training camps with the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins,” Kurt Beathard said. 'That's kind of all we knew. We'd go around the country with my dad sometimes on scouting trips and to bowl games when we weren't in school. That's not going to get any better.”

More Beathard family football branches: Jeff Beathard, Kurt and Casey's brother, played quarterback for Southern Oregon and was the 333rd and final player picked in the 1988 NFL draft and thus earning the title 'Mr. Irrelevant.” The Beathard brother's uncle, Pete, quarterbacked USC to a national title in 1962 and an epic Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin in ‘63. He was the first round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1964 AFL draft.

If there's a theme here, it's quarterback. In two seasons at Towson, Kurt Beathard threw for 4,768 yards and 38 touchdowns.

After making a tackle in the spring game - sending the Iowa coaching staff into defib - C.J. Beathard calmly explained that it was OK, he played safety in high school. But, really, he was always a quarterback, says his uncle.

'It always depended on big and tall he would get,” Kurt Beathard said. 'He always had a great arm. It was always . . . Holy cow. He's one of those ‘want to' guys. He'll go out and play all day long whatever sport it is. He's as competitive as you can be. He's unbelievably competitive in everything he does.

'He's played football his whole life. He's like a throwback to when his dad and Jeff and I and were kids. They grew up playing sports. They didn't grow up around computers or TVs. They were always outside. They were always doing something. Making up games, playing catch or who could throw the ball the farthest. That's what they were into.

'They were always outside playing as if there were no electronics in America.”

Let's fast forward to Sept. 5. The entire Beathard family will be in Kinnick, including the proud grandfather. 'My family and my kids, Casey and his kids, they'll all be there. My dad, we'll all be there,” Kurt Beathard said.

What might the last words be between uncle and nephew. offensive coordinator and quarterback, Redbird and Hawkeye?

'On the field, we'll give each other a hug and maybe rib each other for a couple of seconds and say good luck and go from there,” Kurt Beathard said. 'We have a great relationship. Our families are close. We're at my parents house every Sunday after church.

'I think anything we'd say would just be in jest. We know how important it is on both sides of the ball. They can't afford to lose and we'd love to win.”

That's exactly right.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com