Kansas football: David Beaty needs to recruit some blockers

The work toward the 2018 Kansas football season is about 10 day old. David Beaty’s Jayhawks have some specific absolute needs in this recruiting class.

The 2017 Kansas football season ended on the last Saturday in November. As a matter of fact, immediately after the game, the university athletic department made sure everyone knew nothing would change. David Beaty and his coaches took a long hot shower following the 41-point loss in Stillwater and went to work recruiting. That happened to be exactly a month before Christmas.  Beaty’s wish list may include a number of things this holiday season. He needs to put one thing at the top of his list.

Over the past week, media sources including Rivals reported some good Kansas recruiting news. Several players around the country decided to make commitments to the Kansas football team. One player in particular, a quarterback from Texas reportedly changed his mind and decided to re-commit to the Jayhawks.  Quarterbacks make the headlines and I read several stories about this 6-foot-2, 195, 3-star signal caller.

Kansas football fans want any good news possible on recruiting.  A quarterback’s decision to attend and play for the Jayhawks is great. On the other hand, the Jayhawks need to get excited and find some offensive linemen.  As we saw again during this dismal 2017, 1-11 football season, it really doesn’t matter who runs Doug Meacham’s Air Raid offense if the line doesn’t block.

Think back to the West Virginia game. Jayhawk Center Mesa Ribordy and the Jayhawk line opened holes and allowed Kahlil to run for almost 300-yards against the Mountaineers.  The Jayhawks didn’t win but they looked good and showed some promise in that Big 12 opener.

The week before, Ohio embarrassed the Jayhawk offensive line and ESPN’s C’mon man featured their inept play. Iowa State and TCU also had their way with the Jayhawk line. The Jayhawks had just 5 first downs against the Cyclones.  They had 4 first downs in Fort Worth with just 21-yards of total offense.

Find someone who can block

I know the defense needs help. However, David Beaty needs to use his Texas connections and his assistant’s connections to Louisiana and bring home some big, beefy blockers.  The 2018 recruiting class includes just 2 offensive lineman, according to Rivals.  Earl Bostic is the only offensive lineman on the list of 2017 recruits.

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The 2017 roster included 19 offensive linemen but were inexperienced. They certainly didn’t get the job done for line coach Zach Yenser.  Three of them were seniors. It won’t matter who Beaty recruits if he doesn’t get some blockers.