You didn't necessarily have to be a Nebraska football fan to enjoy watching tight end Austin Allen do his work this season.
Any sports fan could appreciate his talents.
At 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds, Allen is a unique blend of excellent size, strength, smarts and athleticism. He is mindful of his craft, including the route-running part.
This is where Husker tight ends coach Sean Beckton enters the conversation.Â
"I feel like in all my football career I never had a person to actually teach me the fundamentals of route running," said Allen, a fifth-year junior in 2021. "I feel like Coach Beckton excels in that area. He's had a lot of experience coaching receivers. He's a Hall of Famer at UCF himself, so he's got the experience in terms of route running. He just really taught me a lot in that regard."Â
Allen, an Aurora High School graduate, decided to enter his name in the NFL Draft pool after catching 38 passes for 602 yards in 2021, the most season receptions and season receiving yards by a tight end in school history. His reliability and big-play ability contributed to him being named Big Ten tight end of the year.Â
Allen's obvious development, along with that of Nebraska junior tight end Travis Vokolek (11 catches, 127 yards), are leading reasons why Beckton has been named the annual Lincoln Journal Star Husker assistant coach of the year.Â
A native of Daytona Beach, Florida, Beckton just completed his fourth season on Nebraska's staff.
"What's also really good about Beckton is he surrounds himself with really good people," Allen said. "He knows his weaknesses, and sometimes it's, say, the run-blocking game. So, he surrounded himself with a good coach like Steve DeMeo, who spent a lot of time with the (offensive) line coach."
DeMeo, also a Florida native, just completed his third year as an assistant quality control coach on Scott Frost's staff.Â
"DeMeo poured his knowledge on to us and really on to Beckton, too, because Beckton's still learning in the run game as well," Allen said. "Steve DeMeo is a really good coach. He taught Travis and Thomas (Fidone) and Chris (Hickman) a lot of things in the run game that we value, and that helped me become a better player this year."Â
Allen enjoyed a steady rise at Nebraska under Beckton's tutelage, going from two catches in 2018 to seven in 2019 and 18 in 2020.
The 2020 season was limited to eight games by COVID-19. Allen, though, caught at least one ball in each of those games while adding the first touchdown reception of his career. He added two more TDs this season.Â
He clearly has a wealth of talent, and Beckton played a lead role in drawing it out of him for the world to see — and enjoy.Â
"I just felt like my overall game needed to improve," Allen said. "I feel like my (blocking) technique has come a long ways in my years here. It was a matter of getting my body to catch up with technique, in terms of strength. I feel like I was battling that in my four or five years here. But my technique certainly has improved throughout the years thanks to guys like DeMeo and Beckton.Â
"I got better as a football player every single day because of Coach Beckton and who he surrounded himself with."Â
Beckton's acute understanding of route-running techniques stems in part from his days as a star wideout at UCF. He ended his career there in 1990 as the program's all-time leader with 196 receptions and 2,493 receiving yards. As a result, he was one of the first two football players to be enshrined into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame.Â
He came to Nebraska in late 2017 from UCF, where he had been an assistant since 2009.Â
Beckton said he's a believer in uplifting student-athletes.Â
"My biggest thing is to try to encourage," he said. "That's the way I've been coaching for many years, and I've had tons of success."Â
Nebraska fans got a taste of Beckton's coaching approach late this season when he was asked to identify something specific the offense could do to help it improve immediately.Â
"I think the biggest thing for us is we've got to play just a little harder across the board, and we've got to focus in a little harder across the board on every single play," he said. "Our lapses have been killing us. Our lapses have caused us to not execute on plays that we could've basically scored on. I could count four to five every single week. If someone plays a little harder or somebody has a little more focus, we'd be sitting here 8-1, 7-2, with a better season.Â
"I pride himself with the tight ends to really, really harp on those small details. The kids know when they screw up at the tight end position on the practice field, as soon as that play is over, they know I'm right there in their ear. That's one of the reasons those guys play at a high level."Â
It's also one of the reasons Beckton received the Journal-Star's annual recognition.
The turning point in every Nebraska football game in 2021