Kansas head coach David Beaty is shaking things up on his staff this season by declaring he will take on the responsibility for calling offensive plays and coaching the quarterbacks. That essentially strips offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Rob Likens of any defined responsibility on the staff, although he remains a member of Beaty’s assistant coaching staff.
“Rob is still going to carry the same title,” Beaty said earlier this week, according to KUSports.com. “But I’m gonna call the offense, and I’m gonna coach the quarterbacks this year. And that doesn’t have anything to do with Rob. It has to do with me. I want to be more actively involved with the QBs and what we do offensively.”
Beaty last called plays for an offense in 2011 as a co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach. He also called the shots at Rice as offensive coordinator in 2010. The last time Beaty coached quarterbacks was 2006 and 2007 as a passing game coordinator with Rice. With Beaty taking on the lead role of calling the offense, Likens will be used as an extra coach where needed despite holding the same title, officially.
“He’s a little bit more of a walk-around guy right now,” Beaty said. “It allows him to help me a little bit. Rob can go address some of the running-back stuff, some of the O-line stuff, and we get a chance to come back and make sure we’re really doing everything efficient.”
Kansas ranked 10th in the 10-team Big 12 in total offense with an average of 331.5 ypg (115th nationally). Kansas quarterbacks (led by freshman Ryan Willis with junior Montell Cozart appearing in five games) completed 53.8 percent of their passes with 12 touchdowns thrown and 14 intercepted passes. Part of the problem for Kansas was simply a lack of talent to produce much with the offense, but Beaty is looking to set a tone and that was never satisfied last season with the anemic Kansas offense. How much that will change in 2016 is probably minimal, but taking authoritative control just put more of the bulk of the responsibility on Beaty for better or worse.
It is also worth mentioning Willis is continuing to recover from an injured right wrist, which will leave more reps in spring for Cozart, Deondre Ford, Keaton Perry and Carter Stanley.