Kansas State has beaten Kansas six times in a row and 18 times in their last 22 meetings. The Wildcats won as many games in 2014, a ho-hum 9-4 campaign, as KU has won since Nov. 13, 2010. New Kansas head coach David Beaty knows this. It’s the reality he faces every day. It’s why he, and not Turner Gill or Charlie Weis, is there in the first place.
And it’s something he’s determined to change.
“That man down the road, you can say what you want, but he built it to last,” Beaty told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “We’re going to take this dadgum state back. We’re going to take it back.”
Beaty was speaking to a group of KU supporters in Topeka during a goodwill tour of the Sunflower State. “You’ve got to share your vision with fans, and the next thing is about earning that respect and not expecting anyone to give it to us,” Beaty said.
It’s one small step in turning the program he inherited from the worst Power Five program in college football into what the program showed it could be during the Jayhawks’ run to a 2008 Orange Bowl victory.
“We’re asking them in return to understand that it’s a process and not an event, and we’re not going to skip a step. We’re telling them that message up front, so they know we will not sacrifice any steps in the process to build a winner, long-term, something they can be proud of. We’re going to build it right, but to do that there’s an unspecified timeline. We want to make sure it’s something built to last.”
It starts with beating Kansas State, one dadgum game at a time.