Reviewing the homecoming loss
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Kansas hosted OSU Saturday morning on homecoming and fell 44-20. The game was much closer for 3 quarters. Kansas jumped out to an early lead after a sack fumble force by Fish, lead to a Cozart to Quv. 68 yard TD pass. The teams traded points for the remainder of the first half with OSU holding to a 17 to 13 lead at the break. Kansas received the opening kick off of the second half and after two nice runs Kinner, he fumbled at our 26 yard line leading to a easy score for OSU, and after that the turnover monster continued to show its head, with cozart picks in total three Kansas turnovers lead to 17 cowboy points in the third quarter, Kansas did get a good drive of their own between some of those turnovers to add another touchdown. Kansas still had hope opening the fourth quarter on the OSU 5 yard line down 14 but turned the ball over on downs, then it was all done but the crying. I thought the offense moved the ball as good as they have this year with Cozart under center, his 2 picks were very costly one is kinda a 50/50 between him and Quv where he was open but the ball was well underthrown and he had to stop and try to catch it in traffic, it bounced off his helmet and lead to the INT with along return. Beaty didn’t blame Cozart for ether of his picks although I’m not sure how throwing the ball right to the chest of a defensive lineman could be on anyone else. The offensive line played there best game of the season bar Rhode Island, we end up with over 200 yards on the ground and didn’t let up a sack, Kinner outside of the fumble was stellar with 145 yards on 14 carries for better than 1o yards per carry. Cozart and co were sharpe early just didn’t finish some drives but his accuracy seemed to get worst as the game wore on. Still one of if not his best game vs, FBS competition. Kansas had more yards and first downs until the last few minutes of the game where the defense looked tired and let OSU add a touchdown after a early FG in the fourth. I thought the defense played pretty solid for the most part again in dealing with 3 offensive turnovers that gave OSU the ball inside our 26 3 times and once at the 2. Ended up with 6 TFLs and five sacks. They continued to excel on third down baring a few tough 3 and long mistakes but held OSU to 38% conversion. They lead the B12 in this category. I think we made some progress today especially on offense, the sad thing of it is if we could just not turnover the ball so much we would’ve been there at the end. I still feel like we gave away the Ohio and TCU games and a chance to win this one. I think it is huge to compete at home for the sake of getting some people in there to watch and with the way Texas and ISU look I still have hope to get another W this season. Don’t look now as we start a road trip next week to Norman and then to Morgantown to face 2 top 15 teams that will take a perfect game for us to compete in.
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I was disappointed that Coach Beaty chose to go with Cozart. The offense looked the same as with Willis. Our running game worked better Saturday, but not because of Cozart. We are better off sticking with Willis and letting him learn to stop turning the ball over. I was at the game and have the left-side sunburn to prove it. I can’t seem to remember to use sunscreen-at least on my left side.
We are competitive with the O State’s and really were in this game until Gonzalez failed to catch the wide open pass in the third quarter and tipped it off his helmet right to a D back. Every game seems to have this game changing moment. Unfortunately, the moments have all gone against us thus far. If Gonzalez caught that pass and scored, the defense would have been energized and we had a good chance of winning. That one goofy, tragic play that left O State deep in our territory took the energy out of our defense.
I’m satisfied that Coach Beaty is still experimenting with personnel on offense. At least he’s trying something different. He’s still got a long ways to go before he’s decent at play calling. It’s a learning year for everyone on the team, including Coach Beaty. Maybe, I’ll remember the sunscreen for the Iowa State game. RCJH
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I see progress but it will take time to get where we can win the close games. Right now, the fist units seem to do relatively well but the lack of depth means that by the time the second half comes along players are tired and the level of play drops quite a bit. KU has several players red shirting including transfers from Alabama that should be available and help next season.
Unlike a basketball team where 3 very good players or one good recruiting class can produce enough to forms a reasonably good team in a short term, a football team requires a much larger number of quality players not only starters but backup as well and KU just is not there yet. Realistically, it takes several years of recruiting quality players to get there; I am not talking 5 starts which KU will not get in the foreseeable future, but 3-4 star players and the occasional diamond in the rough 1-2 star player. Mangino did reasonably well with a group of overachiever and a couple of good recruiting classes but I am not sure if he would have stayed at KU he would have been able to maintain that level.
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@stoptheflop Neither Cozart nor Willis are the future at QB so I don’t care who plays this year. Tyriek Starks is the future at QB and Beaty is just trying to get to where Starks is ready to run the show.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 exactly.
I think they redshirted him for several reasons.
- Could let him get to learn for a year.
- Get a real 4 seasons from a good QB instead of wasting him when we wouldn’t have had a chance to win a game regardless.
- Not get him injured behind an awful O-Line. Our line should take a significant step up next season.
But he is the guy. At least he better be. Or else Beaty won’t get a 5th season.
