Kansas is firing football coach David Beaty, the university said Sunday. The plan is for Beaty to coach out the remainder of the season before moving on. He’ll collect a $3 million buyout, according to the school.
Kansas is firing David Beaty after four years of endless losing
He’ll finish out the year, though, per the school’s plan.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
After a home loss to Iowa State in Week 10, local reports broke Saturday that Kansas had fired Beaty. Multiple sources indicated to SB Nation that Beaty had a chance to remain on the sidelines for the full season, especially following a recent win over TCU. However, per one source, KU might have been aiming make a move before next week’s K-State game, in order to ensure Beaty couldn’t save his job with a rivalry win.
Beaty’s being fired because he’s lost a lot of games. Losing a lot is understandable, given that he’s coaching football at Kansas.
He has a 6-39 record over four seasons. The Jayhawks were 7-29 under Charlie Weis and Clint Bowen in the three years before Beaty’s hiring.
So it’s not like Beaty has done that much worse. And the program he inherited was, somehow, in even worse shape than the one he’d leave behind. The school’s had a hard time funding enough scholarships to field an ordinary FBS team. Kansas has been bad for almost its whole football existence, with a notable exception of a wild 2007.
Kansas is technically a Big 12 team and thus a Power 5 program. The Jayhawks are at least not as bad as Rutgers, so they’re not the worst power conference team these days.
Kansas fans had predicted this move would come shortly.
Jayhawks block Rock Chalk Talk wrote before the news broke:
Over the past four years, his teams have been plagued by substitution errors, odd clock management, questionable playcalling on third and fourth downs, and failure to settle the quarterback position. The most damning thing is the gameday issues from season 1 were still around in season 4.
In addition, recruiting is in a tenuous spot, as Beaty resorted to Juco transfers during the last two classes, bringing in 10 Jucos in the 2017 class and 14(!!!) in the 2018 class (per 247Sports). It is widely reported that due to Jucos, transfers, grayshirts and blueshirts, KU has just 15 scholarships available for the 2019 class.
The Jayhawks have just one (verbal) commit for the 2019 class.
Here’s my best guess at who will be coaching KU football in 2019:
David Beaty 0%
Not David Beaty 100%
The timing of the move is a touch odd, though not that much, because Kansas has actually been a little bit better this year.
Kansas beat Texas in football in the year 2016, and that was awesome. 2017 only brought more sadness, but 2018 had a few bright spots:
- The Jayhawks won their first road win in 46 tries against Central Michigan in Week 2.
- They followed that up by beating Rutgers in the sport’s GAME OF THE CENTURY the next week.
- They later beat TCU and then rushed the field, which they’ve done after 66 percent of their home wins since 2014.
Firing Beaty could be the right move, though there’s nothing close to a guarantee the next guy does better.
Beaty might not be the guy to make things great, but a new guy probably wouldn’t be either.
Beaty was the receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M. He’d done a couple of previous stints as a KU and Rice assistant. He had also worked various high school jobs going back to the 1990s.
There are fair questions about whether Kansas should even keep trying to play Big 12 football, given its history and finances. But if it’s ever going to work out well, the school needs to hit on a head coach who can transform it over a few years.
The current athletic director at Kansas is Jeff Long, whom you may remember as the dude who hired and often defended Bret Bielema at Arkansas.
We’re not saying. We’re just saying.
KU fans,
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