Column: Cozart ready to strut his stuff

Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart looks to throw during practice on Monday, Aug. 10, 2015.

We won’t know what tweaks and upgrades Kansas University quarterback Montell Cozart made to his game this offseason until he steps onto the field for the first time against a live opponent.

But make no mistake about it: Cozart has changed.

I’ve been around the junior QB for a couple of years now, and I’ve enjoyed just about every minute.

The Bishop Miege graduate always has been kind, polite, helpful and fun to talk to. He’s still all of those things, but these days he does not seem quite as giddy when being interviewed.

To me, that’s a sign that maturity has taken over.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like Cozart has turned into Bill Belichick and just mumbles his way through his answers with a monotone voice and no emotion. He still sounds passionate and paints a clear picture with his enthusiastic words.

But when he talks about things like confidence, he does so without the exuberance of an elementary-school kid excited to play with the big boys. He is one of the big boys. And he knows it. More importantly, he knows his team needs him to be exactly, that and he has not taken the responsibility lightly.

Offensive coordinator Rob Likens, who to this day still has not watched a frame of game film from Cozart’s first two seasons as a Jayhawk, said Cozart is a different player and person than the guy he met in the spring.

“You can tell he’s way more comfortable,” Likens said. “His confidence level is through the roof compared to the spring.”

The suddenly veteran Cozart emerged as a strong leader this summer, by any measure, and has the clear edge in experience in the race to become KU’s starter, which includes juco transfer Deondre Ford and true freshmen Carter Stanley and Ryan Willis.

Likens equates learning KU’s offense to picking up a dance and said Cozart gained valuable knowledge by strutting his stuff last spring.

“I’m a horrible dancer,” Likens said. “And if you put me out on the dance floor and said, ‘Hey, do this dance move,’ and you taught me that dance move on the spot, I’d be nervous and dorky and out of my element. That was what spring practice was. We took these kids, we brought ’em out on the field and said, ‘Hey, man, do this dance.’ Now, I take (Cozart) out on the field, he’s been working on the dance all summer. He knows the dance moves. He knows the steps. Now all he’s gotta do is go out there and dance.”

That last part could be the biggest key.

I think Cozart’s career unfolded a little too quickly for his own good. He replaced Jake Heaps as KU’s starter in late 2013 and led the Jayhawks to a much-needed victory over West Virginia as a true freshman. But James Sims did a lot of the heavy lifting.

A year later, Cozart beat out Heaps during the spring, but I always wondered if that QB race was called a couple of months too early. Hindsight shows Cozart was the QB the coaches wanted to be the guy, but they might have named him the starter a bit prematurely in order to give him the summer to develop his leadership skills. Not a bad move for the team, but it might not have helped Cozart, who wound up getting benched five weeks into the season in favor of Michael Cummings.

Today, Cozart is involved in a true battle, and first-year head coach David Beaty continues to say the junior QB has the inside track on winning the job. Likens agrees.

“You do that line dance, and the first time you just kind of step, step, step,” Likens said. “But the next time you kind of throw (some style) into it a little bit.”

Two weeks into camp, that’s where Cozart sits. But it’s the next two weeks that matter most.