David Beaty fired at Kansas

It’s official: David Beaty is out as the head coach of Kansas football, per a release from Kansas Athletics.

“After a thorough evaluation of the program, I believe that new leadership is necessary for our football team to move forward and compete at the highest level of the Big 12 Conference. I know that Coach Beaty cares deeply about his players, and I respect that. The student-athletes on this team have continued to play hard – and I am confident they will do that for the rest of the season.”

The release specifically states that Beaty, “will not be retained as Head Football Coach at the University of Kansas at the conclusion of the season,” which makes it sound like he will be on the sidelines for KU’s final three games of 2018.

However, “The search for a new head coach will begin immediately,” Long said.

It wasn’t only Beaty’s 6-39 record in three-plus years at KU that saw the Jayhawks go just 2-31 in conference play, although let’s be honest, that the biggest factor here.

No doubt included in this decision, however, was the pretty obvious clock management issues, substitution errors, timeout mismanagement, fourth down playcalling, and the inability to settle on a quarterback. These were all issues that cropped up in year one and just simply were never improved upon.

Additionally, the state of the 2019 recruiting class (one verbal commit) and the questionable decision to go back to recruiting Juco players over the past two years (24 jucos vs 21 HS players since 2017) means that the roster situation has not been improved from the Charlie Weis era.

This change is a year overdue if you ask me, but I’m okay with this timing primarily because Sheahon Zenger won’t be hiring the next football coach.

Here at RCT we’ve been tracking potential replacements for Beaty all season long, although the hottest rumor at the moment connects Les Miles to the now-open Kansas position.

The University is having a press conference at 6 PM tonight that will be streamed at this link.

Obviously, RCT will let you know the moment there’s an update on the coaching search, so stick around and join in the discussion below!