Hooker’s Joe Bean commits to Tulsa University football program

October 26, 2012

Joe Bean before the start of the 2012 season. Staff file photo/John Plestina

HOOKER—With an impressive host of Division 1 colleges offering Hooker’s Joe Bean full-ride football scholarships, the Bulldogs’ standout quarterback chose the school with the smallest undergraduate enrollment of all schools that participate in NCAA Bowl Sub-Division football. It is also a college with an impressive number of current and past NFL football players among its alumni.
Bean, this week, made it official that he will join the Tulsa University Golden Hurricane football team next year, committing to the private college that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
Now nearing the end of his final regular season of high school ball, the the 6-foot, 190-pound Bean has been seen as a top Division 1 college prospect. Next fall he will take it up a notch, playing Division 1 football under head coach Bill Blankenship.
With numerous bowl game appearances in recent years, the University of Tulsa football program was ranked as high as 18th nationally by the AP poll in recent seasons. Tulsa also led all Division I schools in total offense in 2008 (7,978 yards) and in 2007 (7,832 yards). TU shares the lead for the most NFL Hall of Famers among the Division I schools in Oklahoma.
Notable TU alumni include television psychologist Phillip McGraw (Dr. Phil) and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith.
“He’s a good football player. I’m excited that he’s got the opportunity to go to Tulsa. It’s a good school. It’s a great opportunity for him,” said Hooker head coach Jake Kreamer, who has worked with Bean the past two seasons.
He said Bean has been a big part of the Bulldog program the last few seasons.
Bean had football scholarship offers from several Division 1 schools beginning in his junior year and there had been speculation for months over where he would play his college ball.
An impressive host of Division 1 schools offered Bean full-ride scholarships including San Diego State University, University of Wyoming, University of New Mexico and Arkansas State University. Several other schools expressed interest in him. Those schools include Oklahoma State University, Iowa State, University of Kansas, Colorado State, University of Ohio, Rice University, TCU and Cal Poly State University.
Bean said he considered signing with OSU once he had narrowed down his list of schools. Then he visited Tulsa.
“I just went to Tulsa and I fell in love with the people. I got to see a practice and met some of the players,” Bean said.
“It’s a small school, and I’m a small town boy, so it fits right in,” he said.
Bean, who is originally from Amarillo, Texas, moved to Hooker when he was 14.
With the second to the last regular season game with Oklahoma Bible Academy in Enid just hours away and high hopes for a playoff spot for Hooker, Bean said Friday afternoon that he is excited for the Bulldogs, and about the University of Tulsa, but he needed to focus on the game ahead of him. Bean was about to board a bus to Enid.
He has earned a 3.13 GPA at Hooker.
Bean’s 2011 stats are impressive, and a likely reason why some of the nation’s premier college football programs began looking at Bean when he was a junior. This season’s stats are at least as impressive and possibly more so. Bean’s offensive gains his junior year were nearly 1,000 yards passing, about 1,300 yards rushing and 28 touchdowns. His defensive stats included about 120 tackles.
Bean started playing Pee Wee flag football in Amarillo when he was in first grade.
“In Texas, you start playing football very early,” Bean said during a July interview with the GDH.
“The reason I started working so hard is I came my freshman year at 15 going up against 17 and 18-year-olds,” Bean said, adding that at times he took a beating playing against older athletes. To counter that, he started lifting weights with a friend and the work paid off.
“If you’re going to be pushed around doing something you love so much, why not be the dude doing the pushing?” Bean asked.
Bean and Guymon High School quarterback Jacob Test were the only players from Panhandle schools that were invited to participate in both the National Underclassmen Combine in Yukon in late May and the NUC Ultimate 100 in Dallas, Texas, in June. Both athletes emerged from the NUC in Yukon as top college prospects.
When the Guymon Daily Herald interviewed Bean four months ago about his numerous scholarship offers, he responded to a question of whether he sees himself starting his rookie season in the NFL five years from now, Bean responded, “Oh yeah, no doubt about it.”