In December 2014, David Beaty made the rare jump from position coach to head coach when he left Texas A&M for the University of Kansas, a school at which he had previously been an assistant coach. This simple anecdote doesn’t tell the entire story however, as Beaty’s jump landed him at the hardest coaching job in major college football. Despite starting his head coaching career with essentially no expectations, the ever-present chance of repeating tragic failure at the polar opposite of a football powerhouse looms for the young Texan coach. The story of Kansas head coach David Beaty managing college football’s hardest job is far from complete, but he has a limited amount of time to prove his tale won’t come to an all-too-common ending.
In the time between the firing of Mark Mangino, under who KU had its most success since the Big 8 Conference became the Big 12, after the 2009 season and when Beaty took over prior to 2015, Kansas had an overall record of 12-48, including dead-last finishes in the conference all but once (a ninth-place finish). To add to the depressing record, the Jayhawks won just three total conference games in that stretch. When you consider their location is in less than fertile recruiting territory and that their football program has almost no national appeal, KU was about as close to rock bottom as you can get.
That was until David Beaty’s first season as head coach.
Inheriting a program ravaged by the embarrassing and destructive coaching tenure of Charlie Weis (not to mention the awful-at-best two-year period under Turner Gill prior to that), Beaty had little to work with in 2015. With a roster featuring a number of scholarship players well below the Division I FBS maximum, there simply wasn’t enough talent to allow the Jayhawks to compete with major opponents with any regularity. Kansas went winless in its first season under Beaty. What may have been the worst part of all this is the fact that it wasn’t even much of a surprise to students, fans and the greater college football stratosphere.
Kansas had officially hit rock bottom.
On the one hand, there is nowhere to go but up for Beaty as spring practice begins for his second season as the head coach of the Jayhawks. Things truly cannot get any worse. A single win in 2016 guarantees improvement from KU’s 2015 on-field performance, but that’s simply not enough for Beaty and his team. Just because Kansas record could potentially read 1-11 instead of 0-12 next season doesn’t guarantee Beaty any long-term security, nor does it instill a lot of faith in a fanbase that is desperate for any semblance of hope, something that it has not possessed since losing seven consecutive games in the 2009 season following a 5-0 start. A single win is a start, but it will take a lot more than that for KU fans to truly believe in Beaty.
In all fairness, a win-loss record is not the only indication of improvement for a football team. The eye test, as maligned as it is by some fans and pundits, can still be a useful tool if used correctly. Is the team executing the offensive and defensive schemes correctly, but is simply being beaten by better athletes? Are receivers at least catching passes? Is the front seven able to apply any pressure on opposing quarterbacks? Is young quarterback Ryan Willis visibly improving? All of these questions, among others, if answered with a “yes,” would be indicative of significant improvement that the program needs to experience. They key word, of course, is “if.”
It’s factors like these that make being the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks the hardest job in major college football today. Expectations are horrifyingly low due to a recent history of agonizingly bad football, yet these years of terrible performances have worn on fans and the program and have effectively dictated a necessary visible improvement in a few short years. It may not seem like a stretch to ask for just several wins within a few years of a winless season, but when you consider just how truly awful Kansas has been, you come to realize exactly how hard it is for any coach of the Jayhawks to clear the obstacles in front of them and the program.
Beaty has a positive attitude and, at least, appears to be confident that his team is building towards something bigger and better. His tweets featuring the hashtag #neatdeal and his positive interactions with players, fans and the media certainly differ from Charlie Weis’ brash attitude. Beaty has seemingly embraced his role with the program and his chance to turn around what is frankly a terrible team. This positive attitude is important as he takes over even more roles in his second year as head coach, as he recently named himself offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the upcoming season. He has many challenges in front of him, but he appears to be ready to face them head on.
Twelve wins total over the past six seasons, a roster devoid of enough scholarship players to compete regularly at the highest level and a fan base that is sick, tired and increasingly apathetic toward its miserable team are all reasons Beaty must keep his positive attitude, if he hopes to turn around KU football. David Beaty has the hardest job in college football, but he’s preparing to fight against all of these challenging obstacles. A single win in his second season will not be enough to give Beaty long-term security, but a victory against one-win FCS Rhode Island on September 3, 2016 would be a step in the right direction for the rebuilding Jayhawks.
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