One of the surprising story lines that came out of the offseason is the return of left tackle Tyler Beach. Beach has decided to use his redshirt year to return for one final season with Wisconsin. Last season, Beach started all 12 games at left tackle and made the All-Big Ten third team. Beach also brings back over 1,403 snaps of experience to the offensive line room. However, despite the positives that this brings to the offense, there are some cons to this decision as well.
The Pros
According to Pro Football Focus, Tyler Beach finished out the 2021 season as the fifth highest graded offensive lineman (80.6) blocking for the run. Beach helped the Badgers average 210.9 rushing yards per game. Only Michigan (214.4) averaged more yards on the ground. Beach helped clear the way for both Chez Mellusi and Braelon Allen.
Before being lost for the season and with Beach’s help, Chez Mellusi averaged 90.6 yards per game. Mellusi also strung to together four games where rushed for at least 120 yards or more. Mellusi would finish the year with 815 total rushing yards but would probably have over 1,000 had he been healthy.
Arguably Beach’s best work came when Braelon Allen took over as the lead running back. Despite been hardly used in four games, Beach and the offensive line helped Allen breakout. Tyler Beach helped pave the way for Allen to average 105.7 rushing yards per game. Beach also helped Allen shatter the Badgers program record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games with seven. Allen finished the year 1,268 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on just 186 carries earning All-Big Ten second team honors.
If Chez Mellusi wouldn’t have been lost for the season, the offensive line would have been able to possibly brag about having multiple running backs rush for over 1,000 yards. This has been done only 86 times in college football. The Badgers haven’t had two running backs rush for over 1,000 yards in the same season since 2013. That is a testament to just how well Beach and the Badgers offensive line did when rushing the ball.
The Cons
Tyler Beach returning also throws a problem into the mix for the Badgers plans. We still don’t know what were getting from former five-star recruit Logan Brown. Wisconsin has been fortunate enough to return loads of experience to the offensive line each year; however, this has come at the expense of seeing what they have in Logan Brown.
Logan Brown is starting to enter into “now or never time.” While he was able to crack the two-deep last season, Beach has been blocking him from being a starter. I know that the Badgers would like to see him as a starter. However, Beach hasn’t done anything to warrant Brown taking his starting job. I find it difficult to take someone out who has seen 1,403 snaps, earned an all-conference award and graded very highly in the running game.
Despite doing so well in the running game, Beach struggled in pass protection. Per PFF, Beach graded poorly in pass protection (28.1). He allowed 13 quarterback pressures and three sacks in 2021. While most of the criticism was directed at Graham Mertz, it didn’t help that Beach had problems protecting his blindside early in 2021. Beach is going to have to be stout in pass protection for the offense to have success.
Joe Rudolph was Beach’s offensive line coach for most of his career. Rudolph has now departed for Virginia Tech and Bob Bostad now takes over the offensive line room. Whenever a new coach takes over, whether from within or outside, a transition period occurs. While Beach is probably at least familiar with Bostad, he has never been directly coached by him. Bostad has been coaching inside linebackers for the past five seasons. Beach might now need to change the way he has been blocking people. Due to following Rudolph’s philosophy for the past four years, grasping Bostad’s concepts will take time.
How This Effects The Badgers Going Forward
Logan Brown is ultimately the individual player who is affected the most by Beach’s decision. Originally the Badgers had a plan for Brown to takeover the left tackle spot. Now that Beach has decided to return, it’ll make it very difficult to follow that plan. The problem that Beach’s return now creates is what to do with Logan Brown.
Tyler Beach returning for his final season of eligibility is a blessing and a curse for the Wisconsin Badgers. On the positive, Wisconsin gets an experienced lineman back. It’s not very often that someone returns for their redshirt season. However, this prevents them from seeing what they have in Logan Brown. It also puts a question mark on Beach on whether or not he’ll be able to adjust to Bob Bostad as the new offensive line coach. While its very welcoming news that Tyler Beach is returning, it also hinders the Badgers future at the offensive line some.
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