The Monday After: There are plenty of options but no easy answers for Kansas football
Tom Fornelli
@TomFornelli
David Beaty is probably going to get fired.
It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. When you look at the situation the Kansas coach finds himself in, it seems like an outcome that will be nearly impossible to avoid. Kansas lost to FCS Nicholls State on Saturday in its season opener, dropping Beaty's record at Kansas to 3-34. Now in his fourth season with the Jayhawks, Beaty has lost more games to FCS opponents (two) than he's won against FBS opponents (one, Texas in 2016). He's gone 1-32 against FBS teams and is 1-26 against the Big 12.
He also finds himself with a new boss. Kansas hired Jeff Long to be its athletic director in July, replacing Sheahon Zenger. Long came to Kansas after serving as athletic director at Arkansas for 10 years and had been at Pittsburgh for five years prior. He also served as the first chairman of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Now, he's tasked with maintaining Kansas' basketball tradition and solving its football tradition. There generally aren't many athletic directors who inherit a football coach with Beaty's record at a school and decide, "I'm going to keep him around."
For better or worse, the fate of an athletic director is usually tied to that of their football coach. Even at basketball schools.
So, yeah, Beaty is probably going to get fired.
That doesn't mean he should be, however, and this is the dilemma currently facing Long. There is no easy answer to the question, "How do you fix Kansas football?"
While Beaty's record at Kansas is awful, and the Jayhawks have become a running joke nationally, the general public isn't aware of the situation Beaty inherited in Lawrence, Kansas. As The Athletic's Max Olson did a terrific job of cataloging over the summer, Beaty inherited a roster in worse shape than most teams deal with after suffering NCAA sanctions.
Remember when the NCAA hit USC with sanctions after the Reggie Bush case? The biggest punishment was limiting the Trojans to 75 scholarship players on the roster. When the NCAA initially punished Penn State in the wake of Jerry Sandusky (penalties that were later reduced), it limited Penn State to 65 scholarship players.
David Beaty's first Kansas team had 38 scholarship players in 2015. Thirty. Eight.
While it's not clear how many the Jayhawks have on their roster in 2018, Beaty's fourth year with the program, he was hoping to have 70 scholarship players by now, many of whom began as walk-ons and earned scholarships.
Since you're only allowed to bring in 25 scholarship players per recruiting class and there's always attrition, it could be at least another three years before Kansas has 85 scholarship players.
So, if Kansas continues its struggles for the rest of 2018 while dealing with an undermanned roster, Long has to consider quite a few different factors. Would it truly be fair to Beaty to fire him for the results given the massive rebuilding project he inherited from Charlie Weis' disastrous tenure? And more importantly, while it's easy to fire Beaty, who exactly would Long bring in to replace him?
There's a reason Beaty is in Lawrence in the first place.
After Kansas fired Mark Mangino, it hired Turner Gill, who lasted two seasons before getting replaced by Weis, who is mostly responsible for the scholarship situation Beaty is trying to solve. His short-sighted approach of heavily recruiting junior college players put Kansas in this roster crunch.
When Kansas fired Weis, it ended up with Beaty, who wasn't some hotshot coordinator at the time but the wide receivers coach at Texas A&M. He was known more for his recruiting than his coaching acumen. The reason Kansas hired him was that it hoped his recruiting would help solve the problem, but it was also partially due to the fact Beaty was willing to take the job.
If Kansas fires Beaty, who is going to want the job? Who will want to take over not only the worst Power Five program in the country but one in need of a massive rebuild located in an area of the country without a fertile recruiting base?
That's another question Long needs to have an answer for before he decides to fire Beaty.
And when it comes to Kansas football, there are no easy answers.
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