Kansas State University Athletics
The Dancing Bear
Apr 09, 2024 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
They call him a "bulldozer in cleats," and a commemorative bronzed cleat is about the only thing missing from Cooper Beebe's award collection. About two weeks ago, the 6-foot-3, 322-pound offensive guard sauntered into the K-State Athletics Communications office on the sixth floor of the West Stadium Center at Bill Snyder Family Stadium to pick up a pair of honors that were mailed to him at Kansas State. One award celebrated his Associated Press First Team All-America achievement, and the other item was an American Football Coaches Association First Team All-America plaque. He still awaited two more — All-Big 12 First Team and Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year.
His goal is to someday build a trophy case to display everything inside his home — wherever his home may be.
"Just very blessed," he says. "You know, I have acquired quite a few awards. It's going to have to be a pretty big trophy case."
After arriving in Manhattan as the No. 79-rated defensive tackle in the Class of 2019 by ESPN, Beebe ended his college career as the first offensive lineman in K-State history to be named a Consensus All-American. But Beebe, who also carried away a gold football for earning Football Writers Association of America First Team All-America accolades, is living a life far beyond stockpiling certificates, plaques and gold footballs.
These days, life entails workouts under the guidance of Trumain Carroll, K-State football's director of strength and conditioning, inside the weight room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. There's a daunting series of drills that Beebe pounds out called "Four Quarters." Each quarter involves 10 different movements. Might be a pull to the left, a pull to the right, or footwork, or a weight drill, or the "demeanor wave" ("That's probably Coop's favorite," Carroll says), followed by a five-yard or a 10-yard finish. In between each quarter, Beebe's gut burns as he completes abdominal exercises on the medicine ball — 40 or 50 reps, then 10 reps on each side. Then it's onto the next quarter of drills. The abdominal exercises change, and the burn remains. Each quarter is faster than the last. Then it's working on foot pattern, stance, and punching the bag — "little details that are going to have the biggest impact once I get to the NFL," he says.
No movement goes to waste.
"We mimic everything that he will do when he's in practice or when he's in the game," Carroll says. "It's fast and furious, but it's all alignment specific for each of the 10 movements in each quarter. For him to be a 320-plus pound guy, he's one of the most agile big athletes I've ever coached. He's almost like a dancing bear, he's so agile and athletic with the size that he has."
Some days Beebe hops onto Zoom calls with inquiring NFL teams. Every day includes cold tubs, NormaTec boots, and time to "chill." The native of Kansas City, Kansas, known for his monster pancake against a Houston defender in a 41-0 victory on October 28, allowed exactly five quarterback sacks in 1,488 career pass blocking snaps (according to Pro Football Focus) at the guard position — a byproduct of intense coaching, video study and note taking affixed with the cliché attached to the great ones: He knows what the opponent is going to do before he does it. He is a video hound and a workout nut with a wonderful football IQ. He is one of top pupils ever to work under veteran offensive line coach Conor Riley, who says, "His ability to adjust in space is phenomenal."
"Cooper's play speaks for itself," Riley adds. "One of the things that really impacts Cooper's game is his preparation and how he takes things from the meeting room and applies them on the field. He's an extension of us as coaches on the field, and that's a huge quality."
Beebe is projected by some to be an early-to-mid second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft later this month. That could make him the highest-drafted offensive lineman in K-State history.
Pro Football Network writes: "He could open his own cemetery with how often he displaces bodies and puts them in the dirt."
NFL.com writes: "He's a bulldozer in cleats."
Bleacher Report writes that he is a "thick refrigerator."
He lives for the grind. The burn. He is getting his hefty body back into "football shape" after spending eight weeks working out under the direction of nationally-renown trainer Duke Manyweather at Sports Academy in Frisco, Texas, to get into "40-yard-dash shape" for what is half-jokingly nicknamed the "O-Line Olympics" — the all-too-serious and potentially life-changing NFL Combine. In Frisco, it was 6 a.m. speed work, squats and legs, followed by breakfast, a protein shake, then offensive line-specific drills. It was working on stance and run-block posture, then pass-block posture, and punching. It was drills. And more drills. And agility training and, of course, running the 40-yard dash.
"Busy days," Beebe says. "Everything we did at the combine we'd been repping at Duke's for weeks, so we knew what to expect, and we definitely had a leg up on that. It was a grind for sure, but I was definitely grateful for how they helped me prepare myself."
Manyweather's client list could fill a book. Each year, the 39-year-old California native churns out polished offensive linemen like Cadillac produces Escalades, with an assembly line of first- and second-round prospects eager to shine. Many of his clients' testing scores at the NFL Combine have earned them half a dozen formal interviews with NFL teams. That includes Beebe, who turned heads by turning in an eye-popping 5.03-second 40-yard dash at Lucas Oil Stadium. It was the fastest 40 in his life.
"I surprised myself with how fast I ran," he says. "I was hoping to get under a 5.20, which was my goal. To run a 5.03? That blew me away. That was the fastest I've run a 40 — ever."
Beebe had seven formal interviews at the NFL Combine. He loved the Pittsburgh Steelers and hung out with Mike Tomlin. He loved the Seattle Seahawks. He loved the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"That was pretty cool," Beebe says. "I really enjoyed all of them, but I'd say Pittsburgh and Seattle were two of my favorites. Getting to sit and talk with Mike Tomlin, we just talked about life and football. I also loved the Buccaneers. Everybody was really nice."
So far, Beebe has flown out to visit one team: The Philadelphia Eagles ("All of the rest of the conversations have been Zoom calls," he says), as part of a feeling-out process and to build a relationship with members of the organization.
"They said they need offensive linemen, so they were flying out offensive linemen to visit," Beebe says. "We started building that relationship, and they wanted to see what kind of person I am. You never know what happens when draft night comes."
If this isn't the happiest Beebe has been in his life, it's darned close. Dubbed "the dancing bear" by his folks — "Growing up, he was the kid who always had great feet, loved to dance to music, loved to be animated, but he was the most gentle of our kids," Tom Beebe says — he is figuratively spinning and whirling with curiosity and with excitement, with nerves and with gratitude, as his feet, like George Bailey in that dance scene in "It's a Wonderful Life," near the edge of the dance floor, one foot firmly planted in today, the other teetering over the uncertainty of tomorrow, as the floor cracks open. His dance partner, those NFL teams that covet him, remains uncertain — Will Beebe be available on the draft board? — as NFL teams fear to miss a step and fall into the deep end of the pool.
Beebe takes it all in stride.
"It's super exciting," he says. "It's also nerve-wracking not knowing where you're going to go, where your life is going to end up. At the same time, I'm blessed. Not many people get the opportunity that I have, so I'm certainly blessed and excited for it."
He adds: "It's definitely a little scary, for sure."
It is Beebe's favorite play, and its official name is the "Pin & Pull," and just as he executed it to perfection on the gridiron, over the course of his eight weeks in Frisco, he eventually, and flawlessly, presented the Pin & Pull to fellow offensive linemen, explaining the sequence of movements while diagramming the formation and sketching the assignments of all 11 players neatly in black dry-erase marker on a white board.
"I love getting out on the perimeter," he told the offensive linemen. "This is where I like to punish people. A lot of times, you get those corners, those safeties, they're scared of you. They're going to try to back off. So, this is where a lot of the home run blocks go. So, I'm going to be on this play pulling for the strong safety, and again, I have the same type of footwork as the tackle. I'm going to step back with my inside to open up and you have to make sure you're keying that safety with the eyes.
"The eyes are going to take you where you want to go."
And, oh, what the eyes have seen. They have seen 24 All-America honors. They have seen an Outland Trophy finalist honor and a Lombardi Award semifinalist honor. They have seen two consecutive Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year honors in 2022 and 2023. They have seen a degree in social studies education, a 3.84 GPA, and work toward a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. They have seen three First Team Academic All-Big 12 honors. They have seen a selection to the 2023 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Class as a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy. They have seen the 2023 Big 12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. They have seen 48 career starts, including one in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game.
The final play of the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game — a 31-yard game-ending field goal by Ty Zentner that lifted the Wildcats to a 31-28 overtime win over No. 3 TCU — remains Beebe's favorite all-time moment in college football.
"It's something I still think about," he says. "It was such an unreal experience. That Ty Zentner kick, I think about it all the time. I'll remember that for the rest of my life. I was out there, saw him trot out and smile, and I knew we were in good hands.
"It's kind of funny. When the field goal went in, I didn't know what to do, ran around and tried to find people to celebrate with. I was in such shock, running around with my head cut off like a chicken. Confetti coming down, man, it was a once-in-a-lifetime memory."
Six stories high in the K-State football press box, Beebe walks across the carpeted communications office inside the West Stadium Center to collect his national awards. Outside, the sun beats down on the football field at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Beebe played his last college football game in the Wildcats' 28-19 win over NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on December 28.
"You know, I don't think it's quite hit me yet," he says. "Once the season starts and I'm not around the K-State team anymore, that's when it'll really set in. Knowing my playing days are over here and I'm still here working out, it's definitely a weird feeling."
Beebe thinks back to the popular slogan "Bring Back the Beef" when he and fellow senior offensive linemen Hayden Gillium, KT Leveston and Christian Duffie all returned to play the 2023 season together. He chuckles at all the times that the offensive linemen tore tape off their ankles and fashioned it into baseballs and used a shoe as a bat and played games in their corner of the locker room after practice — "Honestly, probably one of my favorite o-line memories," he says.
If there's anything that Beebe, the pride of Piper High School, wants NFL teams to know, it is this: He is great for a community.
"I'm more than just a football player," he says. "I'm a dude who loves to help in the community, and who's going to put other people in front of myself. I'm not just some football player. I'm just a normal dude. Every year we had Special Olympics in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It was one of the most favorite things I've ever done at K-State, to be honest."
Beebe is not just some football player for other reasons as well. Namely, because he has achieved like no other offensive lineman ever to wear a purple-and-white uniform.
"One of my biggest goals was to be a Consensus All-American," he says. "I fell short of that last year and that was definitely my goal this year. I wanted to win the Big 12 again and that didn't happen, but you know what? When it comes to personal goals, I achieved everything I set out to do.
"One of my goals now is to get into the K-State Ring of Honor. At this point, I think I've done everything I needed to do to put my name up there. Now it's just a waiting game."
A different kind of induction will be at hand on April 26. That's Day 2 of the NFL Draft. And that's when Beebe will likely be selected by a team. He plans to have a small get-together back home in Kansas City with family and "people who've been there through it all." He assures that his draft party will be "nothing too big."
Anticipation will meet realization as the bulldozer in cleats reaches for the ringing cellphone from the area code of an NFL team. His world, the one he's labored to reach, will come into view, as the spinning and whirling will seize, both feet planted in today, neither fretting over the uncertainty of tomorrow. Known not just for leveling a guy on the football field, but for an award-winning college career destined for a trophy case, Beebe might never run another 5.03. Won't have to. But the dancing bear will make serious bank punishing defenders, which is the way it's supposed to be for one of the highest-rated guards in the draft.
"It's something as a little kid you say, 'I want to be one of those dudes someday,'" Beebe says. "To know I'm this close to being there and to know when I get that phone call — it'll be amazing. I know I have to continue to build because I want a long-lasting NFL career. It's going to be an unreal experience."
He continues.
"I'm just going to be so excited," he says, "to know my dreams are coming true."
They call him a "bulldozer in cleats," and a commemorative bronzed cleat is about the only thing missing from Cooper Beebe's award collection. About two weeks ago, the 6-foot-3, 322-pound offensive guard sauntered into the K-State Athletics Communications office on the sixth floor of the West Stadium Center at Bill Snyder Family Stadium to pick up a pair of honors that were mailed to him at Kansas State. One award celebrated his Associated Press First Team All-America achievement, and the other item was an American Football Coaches Association First Team All-America plaque. He still awaited two more — All-Big 12 First Team and Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year.
His goal is to someday build a trophy case to display everything inside his home — wherever his home may be.
"Just very blessed," he says. "You know, I have acquired quite a few awards. It's going to have to be a pretty big trophy case."
After arriving in Manhattan as the No. 79-rated defensive tackle in the Class of 2019 by ESPN, Beebe ended his college career as the first offensive lineman in K-State history to be named a Consensus All-American. But Beebe, who also carried away a gold football for earning Football Writers Association of America First Team All-America accolades, is living a life far beyond stockpiling certificates, plaques and gold footballs.
These days, life entails workouts under the guidance of Trumain Carroll, K-State football's director of strength and conditioning, inside the weight room at the Vanier Family Football Complex. There's a daunting series of drills that Beebe pounds out called "Four Quarters." Each quarter involves 10 different movements. Might be a pull to the left, a pull to the right, or footwork, or a weight drill, or the "demeanor wave" ("That's probably Coop's favorite," Carroll says), followed by a five-yard or a 10-yard finish. In between each quarter, Beebe's gut burns as he completes abdominal exercises on the medicine ball — 40 or 50 reps, then 10 reps on each side. Then it's onto the next quarter of drills. The abdominal exercises change, and the burn remains. Each quarter is faster than the last. Then it's working on foot pattern, stance, and punching the bag — "little details that are going to have the biggest impact once I get to the NFL," he says.
No movement goes to waste.
"We mimic everything that he will do when he's in practice or when he's in the game," Carroll says. "It's fast and furious, but it's all alignment specific for each of the 10 movements in each quarter. For him to be a 320-plus pound guy, he's one of the most agile big athletes I've ever coached. He's almost like a dancing bear, he's so agile and athletic with the size that he has."
Some days Beebe hops onto Zoom calls with inquiring NFL teams. Every day includes cold tubs, NormaTec boots, and time to "chill." The native of Kansas City, Kansas, known for his monster pancake against a Houston defender in a 41-0 victory on October 28, allowed exactly five quarterback sacks in 1,488 career pass blocking snaps (according to Pro Football Focus) at the guard position — a byproduct of intense coaching, video study and note taking affixed with the cliché attached to the great ones: He knows what the opponent is going to do before he does it. He is a video hound and a workout nut with a wonderful football IQ. He is one of top pupils ever to work under veteran offensive line coach Conor Riley, who says, "His ability to adjust in space is phenomenal."
"Cooper's play speaks for itself," Riley adds. "One of the things that really impacts Cooper's game is his preparation and how he takes things from the meeting room and applies them on the field. He's an extension of us as coaches on the field, and that's a huge quality."
Beebe is projected by some to be an early-to-mid second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft later this month. That could make him the highest-drafted offensive lineman in K-State history.
Pro Football Network writes: "He could open his own cemetery with how often he displaces bodies and puts them in the dirt."
NFL.com writes: "He's a bulldozer in cleats."
Bleacher Report writes that he is a "thick refrigerator."
He lives for the grind. The burn. He is getting his hefty body back into "football shape" after spending eight weeks working out under the direction of nationally-renown trainer Duke Manyweather at Sports Academy in Frisco, Texas, to get into "40-yard-dash shape" for what is half-jokingly nicknamed the "O-Line Olympics" — the all-too-serious and potentially life-changing NFL Combine. In Frisco, it was 6 a.m. speed work, squats and legs, followed by breakfast, a protein shake, then offensive line-specific drills. It was working on stance and run-block posture, then pass-block posture, and punching. It was drills. And more drills. And agility training and, of course, running the 40-yard dash.
"Busy days," Beebe says. "Everything we did at the combine we'd been repping at Duke's for weeks, so we knew what to expect, and we definitely had a leg up on that. It was a grind for sure, but I was definitely grateful for how they helped me prepare myself."
Manyweather's client list could fill a book. Each year, the 39-year-old California native churns out polished offensive linemen like Cadillac produces Escalades, with an assembly line of first- and second-round prospects eager to shine. Many of his clients' testing scores at the NFL Combine have earned them half a dozen formal interviews with NFL teams. That includes Beebe, who turned heads by turning in an eye-popping 5.03-second 40-yard dash at Lucas Oil Stadium. It was the fastest 40 in his life.
"I surprised myself with how fast I ran," he says. "I was hoping to get under a 5.20, which was my goal. To run a 5.03? That blew me away. That was the fastest I've run a 40 — ever."
Beebe had seven formal interviews at the NFL Combine. He loved the Pittsburgh Steelers and hung out with Mike Tomlin. He loved the Seattle Seahawks. He loved the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"That was pretty cool," Beebe says. "I really enjoyed all of them, but I'd say Pittsburgh and Seattle were two of my favorites. Getting to sit and talk with Mike Tomlin, we just talked about life and football. I also loved the Buccaneers. Everybody was really nice."
So far, Beebe has flown out to visit one team: The Philadelphia Eagles ("All of the rest of the conversations have been Zoom calls," he says), as part of a feeling-out process and to build a relationship with members of the organization.
"They said they need offensive linemen, so they were flying out offensive linemen to visit," Beebe says. "We started building that relationship, and they wanted to see what kind of person I am. You never know what happens when draft night comes."
If this isn't the happiest Beebe has been in his life, it's darned close. Dubbed "the dancing bear" by his folks — "Growing up, he was the kid who always had great feet, loved to dance to music, loved to be animated, but he was the most gentle of our kids," Tom Beebe says — he is figuratively spinning and whirling with curiosity and with excitement, with nerves and with gratitude, as his feet, like George Bailey in that dance scene in "It's a Wonderful Life," near the edge of the dance floor, one foot firmly planted in today, the other teetering over the uncertainty of tomorrow, as the floor cracks open. His dance partner, those NFL teams that covet him, remains uncertain — Will Beebe be available on the draft board? — as NFL teams fear to miss a step and fall into the deep end of the pool.
Beebe takes it all in stride.
"It's super exciting," he says. "It's also nerve-wracking not knowing where you're going to go, where your life is going to end up. At the same time, I'm blessed. Not many people get the opportunity that I have, so I'm certainly blessed and excited for it."
He adds: "It's definitely a little scary, for sure."
Beebe is a bruiser. During his college career, he had a goal: He was going to beat up his opponent. He stayed on the rails of greatness and played through the last puff of steam, the locomotive churning in the purple No. 50 uniform, rumbling through the trees, guiding the coal car to the station. That's precisely what he did on the fateful play, the one that ESPN captured, as he pulled to the left and flattened Houston safety Juwon Gaston like a Cozy Inn burger on a Friday night, guiding running back DJ Giddens into the end zone. The pancake block, so vicious, became a Twitter trending topic among sportswriters, NFL experts, scouts, and college football fans.Never slowing down 🥞 @GetUpESPN pic.twitter.com/nWUEVJjonp
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) November 2, 2023
It is Beebe's favorite play, and its official name is the "Pin & Pull," and just as he executed it to perfection on the gridiron, over the course of his eight weeks in Frisco, he eventually, and flawlessly, presented the Pin & Pull to fellow offensive linemen, explaining the sequence of movements while diagramming the formation and sketching the assignments of all 11 players neatly in black dry-erase marker on a white board.
"I love getting out on the perimeter," he told the offensive linemen. "This is where I like to punish people. A lot of times, you get those corners, those safeties, they're scared of you. They're going to try to back off. So, this is where a lot of the home run blocks go. So, I'm going to be on this play pulling for the strong safety, and again, I have the same type of footwork as the tackle. I'm going to step back with my inside to open up and you have to make sure you're keying that safety with the eyes.
"The eyes are going to take you where you want to go."
And, oh, what the eyes have seen. They have seen 24 All-America honors. They have seen an Outland Trophy finalist honor and a Lombardi Award semifinalist honor. They have seen two consecutive Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year honors in 2022 and 2023. They have seen a degree in social studies education, a 3.84 GPA, and work toward a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. They have seen three First Team Academic All-Big 12 honors. They have seen a selection to the 2023 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Class as a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy. They have seen the 2023 Big 12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. They have seen 48 career starts, including one in the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game.
The final play of the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game — a 31-yard game-ending field goal by Ty Zentner that lifted the Wildcats to a 31-28 overtime win over No. 3 TCU — remains Beebe's favorite all-time moment in college football.
"It's something I still think about," he says. "It was such an unreal experience. That Ty Zentner kick, I think about it all the time. I'll remember that for the rest of my life. I was out there, saw him trot out and smile, and I knew we were in good hands.
"It's kind of funny. When the field goal went in, I didn't know what to do, ran around and tried to find people to celebrate with. I was in such shock, running around with my head cut off like a chicken. Confetti coming down, man, it was a once-in-a-lifetime memory."
Six stories high in the K-State football press box, Beebe walks across the carpeted communications office inside the West Stadium Center to collect his national awards. Outside, the sun beats down on the football field at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Beebe played his last college football game in the Wildcats' 28-19 win over NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on December 28.
"You know, I don't think it's quite hit me yet," he says. "Once the season starts and I'm not around the K-State team anymore, that's when it'll really set in. Knowing my playing days are over here and I'm still here working out, it's definitely a weird feeling."
Beebe thinks back to the popular slogan "Bring Back the Beef" when he and fellow senior offensive linemen Hayden Gillium, KT Leveston and Christian Duffie all returned to play the 2023 season together. He chuckles at all the times that the offensive linemen tore tape off their ankles and fashioned it into baseballs and used a shoe as a bat and played games in their corner of the locker room after practice — "Honestly, probably one of my favorite o-line memories," he says.
If there's anything that Beebe, the pride of Piper High School, wants NFL teams to know, it is this: He is great for a community.
"I'm more than just a football player," he says. "I'm a dude who loves to help in the community, and who's going to put other people in front of myself. I'm not just some football player. I'm just a normal dude. Every year we had Special Olympics in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It was one of the most favorite things I've ever done at K-State, to be honest."
Beebe is not just some football player for other reasons as well. Namely, because he has achieved like no other offensive lineman ever to wear a purple-and-white uniform.
"One of my biggest goals was to be a Consensus All-American," he says. "I fell short of that last year and that was definitely my goal this year. I wanted to win the Big 12 again and that didn't happen, but you know what? When it comes to personal goals, I achieved everything I set out to do.
"One of my goals now is to get into the K-State Ring of Honor. At this point, I think I've done everything I needed to do to put my name up there. Now it's just a waiting game."
A different kind of induction will be at hand on April 26. That's Day 2 of the NFL Draft. And that's when Beebe will likely be selected by a team. He plans to have a small get-together back home in Kansas City with family and "people who've been there through it all." He assures that his draft party will be "nothing too big."
Anticipation will meet realization as the bulldozer in cleats reaches for the ringing cellphone from the area code of an NFL team. His world, the one he's labored to reach, will come into view, as the spinning and whirling will seize, both feet planted in today, neither fretting over the uncertainty of tomorrow. Known not just for leveling a guy on the football field, but for an award-winning college career destined for a trophy case, Beebe might never run another 5.03. Won't have to. But the dancing bear will make serious bank punishing defenders, which is the way it's supposed to be for one of the highest-rated guards in the draft.
"It's something as a little kid you say, 'I want to be one of those dudes someday,'" Beebe says. "To know I'm this close to being there and to know when I get that phone call — it'll be amazing. I know I have to continue to build because I want a long-lasting NFL career. It's going to be an unreal experience."
He continues.
"I'm just going to be so excited," he says, "to know my dreams are coming true."
Players Mentioned
OL
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OL
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RB
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