Kansas football: Top-3 interim options to replace David Beaty

Kansas’ new athletic director plans to give head football coach David Beaty plenty of time to prove his worth to the program, but what if he changed his mind?

The Kansas University football program is in a pit-fall of misery; a hole that three head coaching changes and two athletic director swaps have yet to resolve.

Since the end of the 2009 season, a year that resulted in the Jayhawks’ last bowl game appearance, the athletic staff has struggled to “get it right” with their head coaching hires and futuristic plans for the program.

The reality is that the issues with the football program goes way beyond David Beaty’s squad, but he will none-the-less surely take the fall for the Big 12’s practice dummy that consistently fills out the bottom of the standings chart year after year.

By shifting roles on his staff and surrendering control of the offense over the past three season, Beatty has tried over and over to resolve an offense that consistently looks severely wounded and a defense that is lackluster on it’s best Saturdays.

Though most will agree that recruiting has improved, with a couple of four-star additions coming in this year’s class, the end may come quicker than new athletic director Jeff Long may have anticipated. And despite his comments prior to the season, he may want to get a look as some potential sleeper options to lead the Jayhawks, a program known for consistent turnover, in the future.

Believe it or not, there are a few candidates that may give this year’s team a bit of extra juice to finish out another potentially last place season – one of which has some experience as an interim option and the others who come as a bit of an unknown.

Tony Hull, Running backs Coach

Hull, a former NASA engineer and high school head coach, has been a major strength for an otherwise suspect coaching staff. With origins from Louisiana, Hull has worked tirelessly to develop a pipeline of recruiting from the state to KU and his efforts have resulted in some of the highest rated recruits that the program has ever seen.

For what it’s worth, a lot of Kansas diehards are hoping for a change of scenery on the coaching staff and some are even pulling for Hull to get a crack at the lead spot.

With that being said, a win or even a competent performance by the Jayhawks against Central Michigan today could be a temporary victory for Beaty’s chances of keeping his grip on the reigns through the end of this season.

Clint Bowen, Defensive Coordinator

Having spent over two decades as a Jayhawks, both as a player and a coach, Bowen may be the safest route to go as an interim option. After serving as the defensive coordinator on Charlie Weis’ Kansas staff, he assumed the interim head coaching gig following the later’s firing following the 2014 non-conference schedule.

At the time, Bowen put into place goals for his distressed team, and those achievements were as follows:

1. Be innovative as a coaching staff and try new things to gain an advantage
2. Create a new culture for KU football and get players to buy in to playing hard and tough each play
3. Understand and appreciate the efforts of former players that came previously

All great points in theory, and though the team finish 1-7 under his leadership, the ’14 Jayhawks recorded the lone FBS victory, against Texas, within the past four-plus seasons.

As mentioned before, Bowen would be the safe route for a new athletic director, but the chances of Bowen proving enough this season to land the job full-time are not great.

Kenny Perry, Special Teams Coordinator

Perry had spent the better part of the past three seasons as the corner backs coach for Kansas, but was moved by Beaty to coaching the team’s special teams going into this season.

So far, the move seems to look promising as the team recorded a blocked punt and recovered a muffed punt last week against Nicholls State. Gabriel Rui, the Jayhawk’s kicker, also accounted for two field goals of 54 and 41 yards, respectively.

Otherwise, Perry is a bit of an unknown, but his experience with Beaty on multiple sides of the football field should give some intrigue into seeing what he could be in a lead position.

What do you think Jayhawk fans? Who do you think AD Long would/should promote to an interim role if he fired Beatty before the end of the season?

As always, Rock Chalk Jayhawk.