Carson Beck the runner? The Miami QB is finally using his feet

"MIAMI -- Carson Beck hasn't run a 40-yard dash in years, he said, but he can still remember the time he posted. "Four-seven," he grinned. "And people still think I'm slow." OK, Beck isn't exactly winning a sprint against Usain Bolt with that speed, but it hardly qualifies him as slow. What it did qualify him for, after he showcased his wheels on a 3-yard scramble into the end zone to secure Miami a trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship ( 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN), was a new nickname: Vanilla Vick."

""I heard it," Beck said, "and I died laughing." Safety Jakobe Thomas appeared to be the originator, dubbing Beck as Miami's version of Michael Vick, one of the sport's all-time great runners, during a postgame media scrum following the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Beck isn't the first wannabe to garner the nickname, but Thomas insists it wasn't his idea. He had heard one of the offensive assistants call Beck "Vanilla Vick" in the celebration following his go-ahead touchdown against Ole Miss. Which one? That's lost to history."

""He could've gotten it over the course of the year," said offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, "but I hadn't heard it." Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. was no help either. "I didn't hear it until after that game," he said. "But it's fitting. He did his thing." It's possible, offensive lineman Samson Okunlola said, it has been around for a while or was a spur-of-the-moment thing. With this team, it's hard to tell. "People be giving out new nicknames here every day," Okunlola said."

Carson Beck recalled running a 4.7 40-yard dash despite not timing one in years and joked about people calling him slow. Beck's 3-yard scramble into the end zone clinched Miami's spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship and prompted teammates to nickname him "Vanilla Vick." Safety Jakobe Thomas and an offensive assistant are tied to the moniker's origin, while coaches and teammates described the name as fitting. Beck had only 19 scrambles during the regular season, making the nickname more a tribute to his unexpected postseason performance than to sustained mobility.

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