Many a football season the mind naturally drifted to the same question: If Kansas University just had a good quarterback, how many more victories could it squeeze out of its brutal schedule?

This upcoming season, that’s not a question likely to come to mind. At most positions, the roster is so thin on depth, experience and talent, that even a terrific quarterback would have trouble masking the multiple deficiencies.

Still, it’s the most important position on the field, and since this is spring in Kansas, it’s time to take a look at the possibilities for a season-opening starter at QB. The great Todd Reesing was the last to start consecutive season openers when he maximized the assignment in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Since then, the revolving door has spun out Kale Pick, Jordan Webb, Dayne Crist, Jake Heaps and Montell Cozart. A different starter six seasons in a row. Unless Cozart beats out the competition, a seventh in seven seasons will lead the Jayhawks’ offense Sept. 5 in the season opener vs. South Dakota State. You can’t make this stuff up.

The past can’t be changed, so no point in taking a journey through it, especially considering two of the five candidates to win the job aren’t part of it, just part of the future.

Senior Michael Cummings, the favorite, and junior Cozart have shared most first-team reps, four practices into spring football. Junior T.J. Millweard also is competing. Carter Stanley, a 6-foot-2, 188-pound two-star dual-threat prospect from Vero Beach, Florida, and Ryan Willis, a 6-4, 201, three-star, pro-style QB from Bishop Miege in Roeland Park, join the program for conditioning in early June.

Cummings, Cozart and Millweard have a head start on learning the Air Raid offense, installed in three segments that are repeated over and over.

I asked Kansas offensive coordinator/QB coach Rob Likens if it would take a super genius to pick up the offense in the summer for an athlete right out of high school.

“I think it’s very simple,” Likens said. “Physically is where you’re going to get the problem. Are they strong enough to make those throws? Will their body (hold up)? You’ll see a lot of freshmen hit walls physically right around the third week of camp, then you’ll see it again somewhere in September.”

What then?

“They’ll hit those walls and the freshmen who can push through those walls physically (can play),” Likens said. “But mentally, this is an offense you could learn in three days. I mean, it’s easy.”

If it’s that easy to learn, then doesn’t it stand to reason that it’s easy for scouts to figure out how to defend it?

“The defense will have a pretty good scouting report,” Likens said. “The coaches will. The coaches are the ones that do all the work. That’s the beauty of it. They’re going to know. Getting that information to their players while you’re playing fast, that’s a different story.”

Great answer. If a quarterback can’t keep the offense moving at a fast enough pace to keep the defense scrambling, he’s not the guy.

Asked to describe the perfect fit for the offense, Likens said, “He’d be a guy who can extend plays with his feet, for sure. You don’t want a statue sitting back there. He has to be accurate, and we’re working on that a lot. In this offense, when you’re throwing the ball, man, accuracy is everything.”

Likens said “my perfect guy” would be someone not only able to move laterally, but also, “when he takes off running, he can hurt you. I mean it hurts you.”

Cozart is the only one on campus already who has that sort of running ability, but since accuracy is everything, that hurts his chances. Also, he didn’t use his speed because when processing information, his feet slowed down. Cozart always has distanced himself from getting labeled a running quarterback, both with his quotes and his affinity for running out of bounds.

Millweard’s not a statue, but not much of a running threat either. Also, his throws lack zip because his arm strength doesn’t compare to that of Cummings and Cozart.

Cummings, so-so in the mobility department, has the leadership to keep the offense moving at a fast tempo, the arm strength to make all the throws and is far more accurate than Cozart.

And then there are the new guys, bona fide candidates to compete for the job. Those who have watched Willis walk away raving about his arm and say he’s neither a statue nor a running threat.

Stanley offers accuracy, mobility and savvy for his age. If Cummings isn’t KU’s seventh different Week 1 starter in seven seasons, it shouldn’t shock anybody if it ends up being Stanley.