Brian Hartline hiring Tim Beck proves Kentucky dodged a massive bullet

When Mark Stoops and Kentucky parted ways, it felt like the program got dropped into a coaching carousel blender. Within hours, two names emerged at the top of the list: Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline and Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein. On paper, it was a coin flip. Both young. Both “offensive guys.” Both with real résumés and real upside.

Some fans loudly preferred Hartline. The Kentucky ties through his brother Mike. The wide receiver factory he helped build in Columbus. The recruiting chops. It all made sense.

Then Mitch Barnhart chose Stein, and Hartline eventually took the USF job. Now we’re getting a look at how each man plans to build his offensive room and the contrast is… noticeable with Tim Beck's name popping up in Florida.

Brain Hartline and Tim Beck's old school vs. Will Stein and Joe Sloan's new school

Reports out of Tampa say Hartline is expected to hire former Coastal Carolina head coach Tim Beck as his offensive coordinator. Beck is not some random GA-turned-coordinator. His résumé is long and full of big logos.

He helped jump-start Kansas’ offense in the mid-2000s, eventually becoming passing game coordinator as the Jayhawks went 12–1 and finished with the nation’s second-best scoring offense on the way to an Orange Bowl win. He was Bo Pelini’s running backs coach at Nebraska, then got promoted to OC when the Huskers needed a spark. He’s called plays at Ohio State and was run out of town. He’s run offenses at Texas and NC State. He got the Coastal Carolina head job and went 8–5 in year one before back-to-back 6–6 seasons got him fired.

In other words: he’s seen a lot. He’s done a lot. He’s also been let go a lot and left a lot of people unhappy with his playcalling.

Is that “good” experience or “I’ve been around long enough to wear everyone out” experience? That’s the question USF fans are asking. And quietly, it’s the question some Kentucky fans would be asking if that pairing had landed in Lexington instead.

Because while Hartline is clearly a bright offensive mind, Beck is very much an old-head play-caller. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a very different energy than what Will Stein is bringing to Kentucky. That is why he hired Joe Sloan.

Stein is 35 and just finished orchestrating one of the most efficient, explosive offenses in the country at Oregon. Dan Lanning has called him “the best offensive coordinator in America,” and the numbers backed that up. Joe Sloan helped recruit massive stars to LSU, and was Jayden Daniels' QB coach when he won the Heisman.

They're not trying to recreate a 2007 playbook. They will be pushing tempo, leveraging space, and building an offense around what modern quarterbacks actually do best. And instead of reaching back into the past to try and recapture glory, they will be carving their own path in Lexington.

It doesn’t mean Hartline and Beck can’t work. It doesn’t mean they won’t score points. But from Kentucky’s side of the fence, it should make you look at the Stein/Sloan pairing and think, “Yeah, this feels more like where the sport is going.”

When Kentucky chose between Hartline and Stein, it wasn’t just picking a name. It was picking a philosophy. Watching Hartline turn to Tim Beck for his first big OC hire makes it even clearer:

Mitch Barnhart bet on the right future. We don't get to say that much.