At Kansas, where basketball is king, football is normally a nice excuse to tailgate under the brilliant fall colors until Midnight Madness arrives.
David Beaty will now try where many others have as well and where only a select few have “succeeded.” And when I say succeed I mean by the very modest standards of the University of Kansas football program. Beaty was named head coach of the Jayhawks on Friday and made his first public appearance at, where else, a KU basketball game. Beaty will now try and escape the fate of most of his predecessors at KU which has been, more often than not, a coaching graveyard.
Freudian Slip?
At halftime of Friday night’s basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse, Beaty said that “I won’t sleep until we give you something to be proud of.”
That quote is likely to go down as an historic portent of things to come as few Kansas football coaches ever sleep well in the land of the waving wheat and football futility. Beaty follows two failed coaching eras in which Turner Gill went 5-19 in two seasons followed by Charlie Weis’ record of 6-22 in two and a half seasons. The last man to win at Kansas, Mark Mangino, was of course fired by the school in 2009.
Eyes Wide Open
The 44-year-old Beaty arrives from Texas A&M where he was the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach. Beaty is a former KU assistant, which is helpful in that he understands the Lawrence, Kansas culture and unique challenges of the football program.
Beaty is part of a new trend of college football coaches that follow in the footsteps of Baylor’s Art Briles in that they were highly successful and innovative high school head coaches that graduated to the college ranks. The Baylor/Briles model is the template that many losing football schools now want to emulate.
Beaty has never been a college head coach and was an offensive coordinator for just two seasons at the college level. He is highly regarded for his recruiting record at A&M during its transition from the Big 12 to the man-eating cutthroat trails of the Southeastern Conference where recruiting is a 24/7, 365 day all-out war. Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin is highly complementary of Beaty and stated, “David is a great recruiter. He is one of the first people I hired at Texas A&M and he’s been a huge part of what we’ve been able to accomplish here.”
Bowen Remains
Clint Bowen, who replaced Weis this season to serve as interim coach, will be retained and stay on as the defensive coordinator. Bowen played for Kansas and he play an important role in keeping the Jayhawk faithful patient and loyal during yet another rebuild.
Lone Star Roots a Plus
Texas is prime recruiting country and the fact that Beaty is from there was an added plus to his resume and reputation as a charismatic, energetic, and master recruiter. Kansas does not a produce a great deal of intrastate football talent and KU has long used the state of Texas to supplement their roster.
Spitting into a Hurricane
Ok, so Beaty is a well-regarded recruiter, people person, and salesman. None of that assures Kansas that he will usher in a new era of glory. The fact remains that KU has never been a consistent winner in football. Mangino led the Jayhawks to a dream season in 2007 in which they ended up as 12-1 Orange Bowl Champions with a final ranking of seventh in the nation. That 2007 Kansas team was just the second since 1906 to post double digit wins.
Mangino, Glen Mason, Don Fambrough, Pepper Rodgers, and Jack Mitchell all had moments of glory as head coaches at Kansas. But each time Kansas peaked under those men they failed to sustain success.
Perpetual Rebuild
In college football tradition means more than in most other sports. Kansas football has a tradition of perpetually rebuilding. So just as he promised, Beaty probably won’t be getting much sleep at his new job.
