Before Lance Leipold took over in 2021, the Kansas football program was cursed with inept coaching staffs that could not pull the Jayhawks out of the gutter. The 2010s were a decade of horror for the KU faithful, and it goes without saying that there were very few highlights during that period.
While Charlie Weis and Les Miles retired from football after their stints in Lawrence and Turner Gill no longer roams the sidelines, there is still a former Kansas coach bound to the pigskin. David Beaty, who led KU from 2015-2018, was hired as the head coach at Denton High School in Texas on Tuesday afternoon.
BREAKING Denton ISD names Florida Atlantic WR Coach and former Kansas HC David Beaty as the next HFC at Denton High
— Matt Stepp (@Matt_Stepp817) January 15, 2025
Congrats @beaty_david #txhsfb @dctf https://t.co/Z51lFkcwpW
David Beaty hired as high school football coach in Texas
After KU parted ways with the 54-year-old to make room for Miles, he went on to serve as a consultant at Texas, followed by a stint as co-offensive coordinator with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL. Most recently, he spent two years as the wide receiver coach at FAU before leaving to take the head coaching position at Denton.
Kansas went 6-42 during Beaty's four-year tenure, a time that all fans can agree they would like to forget about. The Jayhawks had two conference wins under Beaty, one of them being the hilariously unexpected upset over Texas in 2016.
While the news might sound like a demotion at first glance, Beaty has coached high school football before. He spent time in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 2001-2005, leading North Dallas and Irving MacArthur until he moved on to the NCAA. Considering he tallied an impressive 39-15 between those two positions, his high school resume is much more convincing than his collegiate accolades.
Beaty didn't have much success attempting to turn around KU's football program, but he might fare better at the high school level.
“My family and I are honored to be at Denton High School,” Beaty stated in a press release. “This is an unbelievable school district. I am blown away by the quality of people here, and it is the people in an organization that make a place special. We are ready to roll up our sleeves and get going.”