Jayhawks Football: Time to move on from David Beaty

It has been a pretty embarrassing season for the Kansas Jayhawks this year. With another year in the tank, it is time to move on from head coach David Beaty.

It simply cannot be overlooked anymore. The Kansas Jayhawks are absolutely awful this year…again. The KU football program has been an absolute joke in recent years, but the last three belong to current head coach David Beaty. After yet another embarrassing loss, it’s time for Kansas to move on from Beaty.

The Jayhawks are well on their way to yet another double-digit loss season. Already at 1-8, KU will play two of their three remaining games against ranked opponents. The chances of pulling out any kind of a win are as close to 0% as you can possibly get. This is a new low for even lowly Kansas football.

David Beaty told reporters last week that he never promised a three-year turnaround for KU. That’s fine, but there should be at least some signs of improvement. If the Jayhawks finish with 10+ losses again this year, it will be more than in the Charlie Weis and Turner Gil years combined. That’s just unacceptable.

Better Coaches Will Be Available

One major factor for the Kansas Jayhawks athletic department to consider is the number of quality coaches that will be available this offseason. I touched on this before, but things have changed since even then. Already, Jim McElwain has been fired from Florida. He’s a coach with a solid resume and will be looking to rebound.

Some other top coaches that will likely be unemployed this offseason include Butch Jones of Tennessee and Brett Bielema from Arkansas. In fact, rumors have surfaced that Tennessee is already working on the buyout of Jones’s contract. That could end up being a major grab for Kansas.

Related Story: Kansas Jayhawks: Game Day vs Baylor Bears

Of course, the key to Kansas hiring a new head coach is going to be how much money they are willing to pay. It was recently made public that David Beaty is the lowest paid head coach in the Big 12. Unless the Jayhawks athletic department is willing to improve on that (significantly), they won’t be able to attract many quality names.

Jayhawks Must Be Willing To Change

The investment that Kansas is willing to put into the football program is really the crux of the issue. KU has been known as a basketball school for as long as anyone can remember. Except for a few years under Mark Mangino and Glen Mason, the football team has been nothing more than an afterthought.

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KU put a considerable investment into Charlie Weis a few years ago that blew up in their faces. It’s understandable that the athletic department would be wary of making that mistake again, but they have to be willing to try. Hoping to find some young, unheralded, up and comer is a long shot at best.

If Kansas isn’t willing to put the same kind of investment into their football program that they do the basketball program, they can’t expect the same kind of results. Of course, it is possible to build the football program up slowly. However, at some point they are going to have to be willing to spend big money.

The bar was not set very high for the Jayhawks this year. All anyone wanted to see was some improvement. That shouldn’t be hard after 0-12 and 2-10 seasons. An embarrassing loss to a horrible Baylor Bears squad has to be the final straw on David Beaty. Enough is enough.