Cornerback small, but comes up big in Bears’ secondary
Nickel cornerback Traveon Beck is listed on the Cal roster generously at 5-foot-9, 160 pounds.
Stanford tight ends Kaden Smith and Colby Parkinson appear to be every bit of 6-5, 252 and 6-7, 240, respectively.
There is potential for a big mismatch in Saturday’s Big Game, but Beck has proven time and again that he plays his best when doubts begin to swirl.
“Playing nickel is really a difficult position. One week, you have a quick, shifty guy like Shun Brown at Arizona, and several weeks later, you have a 6-7 tight end in Colby Parkinson from Stanford,” Beck said. “You just have to play football. Whoever is in front of you, you have to try to dominate your opponent and do whatever it takes to help your team win.”
Playing nickel requires a player to identify opponents’ formations, cover receivers like a defensive back and set the edge in the run game like a defensive end. Beck recently tweeted that he’s doing it better this season than anyone in the nation.
That’s not entirely hyperbolic. Pro Football Focus graded the St. John Bosco-Bellflower alum at 80.2 last month, trailing only Utah’s Jayelin Guidry among all slot cornerbacks in the country.
And all Beck has done since then is sniff out a fake field-goal try and make the tackle and grab a momentum-shifting interception in Cal’s 15-14 victory at USC on Saturday. Beck lined up outside the slot receiver and baited JT Daniels to throw the pass before jumping inside to make the pick.
“From the first time I saw him, I just thought he was like a little rascal,” Cal senior inside linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk said. “He gets in there, and he just makes plays. He’s just this little guy, who is a ball magnet getting interceptions, deflecting the ball and making knife tackles. He means a lot to our defense. …
“Whenever you turn on the film, you see ‘22’ running around and making plays.”
In his postgame news conference at USC, Beck asked the Cal media-relations team if he had time to tell a story about his first competitive game. He opened by saying it was a win against Snoop Dogg’s youth team at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and realized midway through his story that his squad actually lost.
He also joked that he didn’t expect the fake field goal and only a slip in his footing during an attempted rush to block the kick allowed him to be in position to make the tackle.
The Cal coaches love Beck’s passion and the way it fires up his teammates, but they also closely monitor his naturally goofy disposition. Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, a fellow Bosco grad, even called in Beck’s high school coaches to counsel him last season.
“I hesitate to give him too much credit, because he’s one of those guys who, if you give him sugar, he can die from it,” DeRuyter joked. “… No, I’m really pleased with his progress. A year ago, we knew he had a lot of talent, but he just wasn’t consistent enough. I think he’s done a really nice job, knock on wood, of being consistent off the field, which has helped him be consistent on the field.”
Beck said: “The coaches are always working to try to keep me humble, but I know they trust me on the field. I feel like I’m playing really confident, and I really love what we have going on as a defense. We’re playing lights out.”