Big 12 Football Media Day Recap

The David Beaty era unofficially entered its second year Monday at Big 12 media days with the annual gathering of press, players, coaches and administrators to preview the upcoming season.

Each coach holds a press conference for local and regional outlets. It’s a forum where Beaty, being the charismatic coach he is, shines. Even coming off a disastrous 0-12 season, Beaty was relentlessly positive about the upcoming season.

“We’re excited about our season up coming, just like everyone else in the country,” Beaty said via Big 12 Sports. We were not satisfied obviously with our production last year, but we are extremely encouraged by the work that we have put in the production that we have put in in the off-season. We are building a foundation of Jayhawk football and we know here we are going to be successful.

“This is the best off-season I’ve had.”

There was a lot of turnover on the Jayhawk’s coaching staff, including defensive line coach Calvin Thibodeaux and longtime running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell. However, Beaty’s plan for improving the program, including hiring coveted coaches, recruiting the state of Texas and developing high school talent, hasn’t changed from last year.

“You know, I think the thing for me, and I’ve always been this way, is I want to hire guys that are valuable, guys that other people want,” Beaty said via Big 12 Sports. “I want to hire talented guys and when we hire them we talk to them all the time I talk to our staff all the time about, listen, if you’ll think about it like I did when I put my head on the pillow at night I will help you and your family could anything that you feel like is in the best interest for you, and Calvin did that for us. So did Reggie Mitchell.”

“All of the departures we had this year, every one of those opportunities were better opportunities for those guys at their stage of their career they all made good sense. We’re not afraid of losing good people because we know there are good people out there to come in and fill those gaps for us.”

The coach generating the most buzz among Kansas fans this offseason is running backs coach Tony Hull from New Orleans. Hull has helped KU land several talented recruits from Louisiana and Beaty had nothing but praise for the young coach.

“We hired Tony Hull, high school coach out of New Orleans who was literally a rocket scientist,” Beaty said via Big 12 Sports. “He literally worked for NASA and worked on the space shuttle and gave up that job to go back into public schools in New Orleans after the hurricane because he wanted better for his city. He gave up a lucrative salary to go back and help the youth of his hometown and he’s been successful because of those concepts that he’s followed in his lifetime.”

Even with great coaches, the Jayhawks still need players to step up this year for KU to be successful, most importantly at quarterback. Beaty weighed in on the competition between junior Montell Cozart and sophomore Ryan Willis, among others.

"“Montell had a phenomenal spring, terrific spring, developed really well for us,” Beaty said via Big 12 Sports. “Carter Stanley had a terrific spring, kid out of Florida has done a nice job for us. Ryan Willis, although he couldn’t throw the ball he was involved every day with a nerve and he operated the offense. The competition, Brian, is going to go into fall camp and as soon as I decide what I need to see to know the clear divider, and there will be, it will be a clear divider, once that happens we’ll make that decision. We would like for it to be quick, but we don’t always get what we want. We will take it as long as we have to take it. Our guys know quarterback position is no different for us than it is to play defensive tackle. You get what you earn.”"

Known as an offensive guru before arriving at KU, Beaty made the decision for the upcoming season to take over playcalling duties from coordinator Rob Likens.

“Last year at this time the plan was for me to be as heavily involved as I am now,” Beaty said via Big 12 Sports. Unfortunately, I had to be unselfish and step back because as you know, as a head football coach there’s a lot of things that go along with building a program that it’s hard to manage all of it. We were able to get those things in place, we’ve got the foundation laid now and that was the plan, the whole way through. As soon as I felt like we got it to where I needed it to be from an organizational standpoint and all of the peripherals taken care of, I was going to jump back into it.”

Around the Big 12

The big news this offseason for the Big 12 was the conference’s intent to go back to a championship game to determine the champion.

“Among the things that I expect will happen, as I think we will probably end up playing divisions, I think our two champions of those divisions will end up likely playing each other in the championship game,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said via Big 12 Sports. “I think we will definitely play the game at a neutral site.”

Of course, the elephant in the room was the sexual assault scandal at Baylor University, which led to the firing of head coach Art Briles and university chancellor Ken Starr. Bowlsby addressed the ongoing issue in his remarks.

"“I think the other thing that obviously we have on our plate is that our Board has asked for a full accounting from Baylor University relative to the sexual assaults and their university’s response to that situation,” Bowlsby said via Big 12 Sports. “I think it’s fair to say that they’re deeply concerned about the associational elements of this… But we certainly want to make sure that from the center we do everything we can to ensure that they are minimized, if not eradicated. So additionally, from a purely athletic standpoint, we also have to be satisfied that there haven’t been Big 12 rules broken and that there haven’t been NCAA rules violated. That is the essence of our process, and it’s very early in the process right now. We will be continuing to work on it. Baylor has been very forthcoming and I don’t have any doubt that they will continue to be forthcoming.”"

On a much lighter note, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy showed up to media day looking all business, until the press saw the back of his head, where it became obvious that Gundy had succeeded in growing a tremendous mullet. Even the Big 12 referees (parody Twitter account) noticed, and provided a helpful guide to Gundy’s hair.

The 2016 edition of Big 12 Media Day had it all for KU and Big 12 football fans: some great updates from head coach David Beaty on the state of the program, conference championship game news from commissioner Bob Bowlsby, and some really great hair from Mike Gundy.