Beathard: Songwriter’s son, but steeped in football

IOWA CITY - The first 14 questions at Kirk Ferentz's Tuesday press conference were, directly or indirectly, about Iowa's quarterback situation.

I commend my friends in the media corps for staying on topic. Luckily, a butterfly didn't float past us to distract us from the one and only subject of the week. Which is C.J. Beathard probably, maybe, probably getting his first collegiate start Saturday at Purdue in light of Jake Rudock's injury of unspecified detail.

There's little like a quarterback 'controversy” to stir the masses. Because the No. 2 guy is always the people's choice in quarterback 'controversies,” and the people bring the passion in such matters.

But this isn't a real 'controversy.” Rudock was hurt and couldn't go in the second half against Pittsburgh last Saturday, and it wasn't as if he didn't play pretty well in the first half.

His long pass to Damond Powell on the game's first possession was a beauty. But Powell bobbled it directly into the hands of Lafayette Pitts for a fluky interception.

Had Powell caught that ball and Iowa proceeded to go in for a touchdown, Rudock's first-half stat line would have looked good. That assumes Iowa's second drive would still have produced a touchdown and featured a terrific 44-yard pass from Rudock to Matt VandeBerg.

But Rudock couldn't go after halftime, and Beathard came in and earned the faith of the many who had clamored for him to get more time at quarterback. He sparked the Hawkeyes to a touchdown, field goal and touchdown on their first three drives of the second half.

A 17-7 deficit turned into a 24-20 victory. The offense grew more fluid in multiple ways as the game went longer, not all of it hinging on Beathard's play. But he was as good as you could have expected or reasonably wanted. And it became one of the nicest Iowa wins of the last few years.

Hail, CJB! It was known he had a howitzer of a throwing arm, and he already had an swashbuckler's image created by others mainly because he is long-haired and bearded. With the win at Pitt in his pocket, he is the stuff of folklore. For now, anyhow.

'I don't really look into that much,” Beathard said Tuesday, 'but I see what people think. The long hair, he's just free-going, doesn't really care.

'I'm a serious guy, I'm a leader. I think the hair is just a part of me. I grew it out because I like it.

'People think they know what I'm like off the field. They really don't unless they're my friends or people that I know.”

He's the grandson of a longtime NFL general manager, now-retired Bobby Beathard. He grew up around football people and football players. This is a football family, though. Beathard's father, Casey Beathard, played at Elon University. Uncle Kurt Beathard is the offensive coordinator at Illinois State. Uncle Jeff Beathard is a scout for the Carolina Panthers. Cousin Jeffrey 'Bobo” Beathard is a wide receiver at Appalachian State.

As a boy hanging around his grandpa's workplaces, C.J. got to see firsthand what makes NFL players the best at what they do.

'(The late Chargers linebacker) Junior Seau was a guy that I really loved,” Beathard said. 'Not a quarterback, but he was a really good leader, a good guy.”

But he also has some of a creative artist's genes, too, since his dad has written or cowritten songs for the likes of country music stars Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Trace Adkins. Not that good songwriting doesn't require discipline and hard work.

Still, football is more about geometry than art, brutality than poetry. You play quarterback for Ferentz at Iowa, you have to be an administrator, not a free spirit.

But if Beathard hits on a bomb or two at Purdue like the 62-yarder he threw to Powell in the second half at Pittsburgh? Someone in Iowa will probably write a song about him before his team's bye week begins.

Here's a story about Casey Beathard talking about the song about football he co-wrote for Kenny Chesney called 'The Boys of Fall.”

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