Kansas football coach David Beaty is trying to put a square peg in a round hole. His “Air Raid” offense is trying to win a Big 12 football game and they simply do not have the type of talent it takes to make that offense work.
Ryan Willis and Montel Cozart very simply are not the type of quarterbacks to make a go of the “hurry up and throw it” style of play that Beaty is asking of this young Jayhawk football team. A year-and-a-half into this experiment, Beaty should scrap it. Good coaches fit the talent they have to the most workable offense. They do not, should not, decide what offense they want to run and force it on the players when their talents do not fit the offensive style.
Kansas leads the nation in turnovers. Turnovers are mistakes, not lack of effort. Mistakes happen when players are not sure of themselves and what they are doing. “Practice makes perfect” didn’t just come out of nowhere. Repetition of a few basic plays makes for more perfection. There is simply no way to duplicate in practice an “Air Raid”, hurry-up tempo, offense.
“Offensively, we’ve got to get better in a lot of ways,” Beaty said following the 49-7 loss to Baylor last Saturday. To get better, with these players, Beaty needs to get different. A different style of play. One that would minimize errors, control the clock and emphasize more of a running game. Kansas does have a number of quality running backs. They aren’t used enough. When your Most Valuable Player from the game is your punter, you’ve got major problems!
Hey, it’s a lot of fun to throw the football all over the field and rack up tons of points if you have the talent to do so. It is a lot more fun to win and the Jayhawks are not winning with this style of play. Perhaps a change in offensive strategy won’t make a bit of difference but it would shorten the games, lower the scores and perhaps, just maybe, keep Kansas in a few games and win won at the end.
It’s time to stop trying to put the square peg of the Air Raid offense into a round hole!
Has there ever been a more important game played in Great Bend? Garden City at Great Bend this Friday. Two undefeated teams. On the line is a WAC Championship. On the line is a top seed in the new playoff format for both teams. Bragging rights and a chip to take to the poker table of state playoffs.
Last week Garden City rumbled by a good Dodge City team 36-13 to keep their unbeaten streak alive. Ditto for Great Bend as they strutted their way to a 49-7 pasting of the Liberal Redskins. Surely the old stadium will be packed and rocking! The two teams look to be evenly matched but good weather and the home field advantage should tip the scales the Black Panthers way. Great Bend 33, Garden City 21.
CHALK TALK: ”Ten is the right number of teams” says U. of Texas President Greg Fenves. Then why in the heck did they put all of those prospective teams through that 6-month long song and dance routine? There’s more to this story than we are being told!.....Texas at Kansas State. Two teams searching for an identity, both desperately needing this win. Cats don’t lose often in Manhattan. K-State 30, Texas 24......if Kansas keeps on slinging the ball around, Okie State will intercept 2 or 3 of them and turn them into points. Cowboys 44, Kansas 17........How in the world does Colin Kaepernick ever get a football helmet over that head of hair? No wonder he kneels for the Star Spangled Banner. He can’t hold his head up that long!
“If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead!”—ERMA BOMBECK
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and her views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.