Kansas football: Take-away’s from victory over Rutgers

Kansas football head coach David Beaty was non-committal when discussing who would start in next weekend’s Big 12 opener against Baylor.

Last week, I discussed the benefits for the Jayhawks if Beaty were to make a change at quarterback to sophomore duel-threat Miles Kendrick. Beaty must have read my argument prior to Saturday’s contest against Rutgers, a game that was won 55-14, and gave his QB2 a true test as the number-one option.

Kendrick lead a couple of drives in the first half, while also handling the offense for the majority of the second half.

This victory, following last week’s win against Central Michigan, has a lot of Kansas fans hoping and believing for a brighter future for their football squad. But, with the conference schedule on the horizon the task of nailing down any sort of quarterback competition is essential.

The reality is that Beaty’s current systematic operation of the depth chart has been working for Kansas and while nothing may change in the short-term, fans and media members alike want an answer as to who will be the center of attention moving forward at quarterback.

Both quarterbacks performed well against the Knights, with starter Peyton Bender finishing the contest with 73 yards on 8 completions and Kendrick completing six passes for 66 yards, six carries for 28 yards and two total touchdowns.

So what’s the plan?

Probably nothing. If it isn’t broken, why try to fix it? Beaty is not known to make swift decisions, as seen by his choice to wait until just prior to week one to announce his starter for the season.

In all honesty, as much as I, personally, wanted to see a change at quarterback, it seems that Beaty has perfected Kansas’ version of a two-headed machine at the position right now. By keeping the depth chart as-is, Beaty gives himself the flexibility to determine his quarterback’s playing time based off of what the opposition is doing and doesn’t give the opposition a clear view of who they should prepare for on Saturdays.

As history shows, two-quarterback systems don’t always work. Most recently, Beaty tried this with Carter Stanley and Montell Cozart in 2016.

As Jayhawk fans will remember, that plan did not work very smoothly for Beaty, with the season reflecting a 2-10 record when it was all said and done.