Kansas football: Coin toss snub punishment came too late

Kansas football coach David Beaty and the Big 12 decided to discipline 4 team captains. Did the punishment fit the crime and was it too late to take action?

The Kansas football team made more news Tuesday for the silly coin toss stare-down before Saturday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma. I doubt if much would have happed had the team captains not done this to Heisman Trophy Candidate Baker Mayfield.  As a matter of fact, I wish Coach David Beaty had taken action on the issue immediately. He waited until Tuesday to hand out punishment.

During his media briefing Tuesday, Beaty announced Joe Dineen, Dorance Armstrong, Jeremiah Booker and Daniel Wise would not serve as captains in the season finale in Stillwater. “In their place, we’re going to send our seniors out to be the captains this week,” he said with pride.

On the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday, Beaty apologized to anyone and everyone for the incident. He knew he needed to say something to express regret. I wish he’d done more the minute the incident happened on national television. Then it traveled around the country on social media.

On November 4, after a loss to Michigan State, I saw Penn State Coach James Franklin race across a stadium to reprimand a player.  Franklin noticed the player refused to shake hands with the winning team and he was not about to miss the opportunity to take action immediately. Beaty did. Waiting until Tuesday was too late.

Next: KU football fans are embarrassed

The Big 12 Conference also reprimanded the Kansas football captains Tuesday. According to the conference, “their action was in violation of conference “sportsmanship and ethical conduct” rules. Didn’t they know that on Saturday? This mess is just another black eye on the 2017 Kansas football season that fortunately ends Saturday.