#MIZCAMP17 Spotlight - Terry Beckner Grows Into Leadership, A Role He Embraces
8/23/2017 11:15:00 AM | Football
Junior DT will be looked at to lead Mizzou's defense in 2017
COLUMBIA, Mo. – After two injury-shortened seasons, Mizzou's junior DT Terry Beckner, Jr., is ready to attack the 2017 season with the same ferocity that made him the nation's No. 1 overall recruit back in the spring of 2015. And while he sustained a pair of season-ending knee injuries in each of his first two seasons, Beckner says that rehabbing those injuries has given him a new outlook on the work he must put in to reach the potential he sees for himself.
"When they said, ACL or MCL [last season], I was telling myself, you've been through this," Beckner said. "This is another stepping stone. You're going to get through it. The second you come back, you have to be ready to work. I know I have to go get it, because if I don't, I'm setting myself up for failure. This really pushed me to reach my maximum potential. I'm ready to put in the work and go forward."
That maximum potential includes more than just breaking up plays in the opponent's backfield. Beckner knows that, for the gifts he has been possessed with, reaching his potential means he has to commit everything to his teammates, and grow into a team leader, if they are to achieve their goals.
"I've most definitely gotten more comfortable being a leader," Beckner said. "I've been more vocal after the second injury. It was halftime of the Arkansas game when I got up and spoke to the team, gave them a little speech. That's what made me realize that I had a real voice and I could lead this team. Now, I got it to the point where they count on me, and I count on them. I'm feeding off of them now. So, I just needed that time to realize that it's my time to be a leader. I've been a young player, but now, I'm going into my junior year so I've got to be more vocal and have everyone else on the same page."
"I wouldn't say that I'm the next man up. I just stepped up..."#Mizzou junior DT #TBJ pic.twitter.com/6BWcjQE6rN
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) August 19, 2017
Putting in the work to be a leader on a Southeastern Conference football team can be challenging. But for Beckner, it's no trouble at all. Because the men he is helping lead are more than just teammates, they're his brothers.
"As a team, we are a family," Beckner said. "People started to link up with people to watch film with each other, linebackers have been with the d-line watching film together, instead of doing it separate. So, it's just the little things like that, everything just feels better, this feels like a true team. My goal is to go out there and compete for my brothers and give everything I have to them. We just have to take every day, one day at a time. Don't try to move too fast. Just take it all one day at a time, and never stop competing."
The notion of brotherhood, leadership and high compete level can be felt in all aspects of Beckner's game, which is what gives the team such high expectations for him as he looks to uphold the long history of dominance on #DLineZOU.
"I wouldn't say that I'm the next man up, I just stepped up," Beckner said. "I'm not the next man up. No one man on this team is bigger than another. I'm just the same as everyone else, but I may talk a little more. It's never that I'm that guy, because I'm not. It's a team. There's never an "I" in team. I just have some of the abilities needed to help some people."
As #MIZCAMP17 draws to a close, Beckner isn't concerned about injury or what the future may hold. Rather, he is entrenched in the gratefulness he feels to be on the field playing football with his Mizzou brothers at an extremely high level. And while expectations will be high for him this season, Beckner knows that, in order to succeed, he needs to put in the work, maintain his presence as a vocal leader for the team and compete with his brothers both on and off the field.
Stay tuned to #MIZCamp17 by following Mizzou Football on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @MizzouFootball. Tickets are available for the season by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS (884-PAWS locally), or visiting MUTigers.com/FBTix.
