Kansas offensive lineman Keyon Haughton waits to snap during spring practice on Tuesday, March 24, 2015.

During his Tuesday afternoon meeting with the media, Kansas University offensive line coach Zach Yenser revealed a very specific aspect of the key to KU’s new offense.

And it’s not what you might think.

“That shotgun snap is the most important pass in our offense,” Yenser said. “Bottom line.”

Although it might be rare for someone to consider the snap at the line of scrimmage an actual pass, its importance in an offense like the Kansas version of the Air Raid system cannot be underestimated.

As the Jayhawks found out during the past couple of seasons, not having a reliable center can create breakdowns throughout the offense and turn even the best play calls into bad situations.

Senior Keyon Haughton (5) and sophomore Joe Gibson (7) accounted for all of the starts at the anchor position of the O-Line in 2014. And those two have taken almost all of the first- and second-team reps during camp, with Haughton running most often with the first unit. Yenser said both had looked good during camp thus far but added that he was working multiple players at the position on at least a part-time basis just so the Jayhawks remain ready for anything.

“Throughout practice, you’re gonna see (Bryan) Peters snapping, (D’Andre) Banks snapping, (Jacob) Bragg snapping, (Aaron) Garza snapping and (Hunter) Saulsbury snapping,” Yenser said. “We’re not gonna skip a beat. If one guy gets dinged up or whatever, those guys are snapping every day.”

That practice, which the coaches refer to as “cross-training,” adds to the team’s depth and helps ensure that Yenser and offensive coordinator Rob Likens have options should adversity hit.

Peters, a fifth-year senior who has worked with the first team at left guard throughout camp, thinks it’s a brilliant idea.

“All it does, at the end of the day, is it gives you more and more opportunities to get on the field,” he said. “If Keyon or Joe go down during a game, if I have to be the one to step up and snap the ball then I can do that.”

Despite the fact that multiple guys continue to get reps at center, few of them, including Gibson, who missed time in the spring with an injury, snapped anywhere close to as many balls as Haughton this offseason.

The reason is simple. First, Haughton’s a senior now and he knows this is his last shot at playing a significant role. Second, he wants to show that the snapping struggles that led to his benching after five games are a thing of the past.

A greater emphasis on “the little things” helped Haughton become more consistent this offseason. And in addition to snapping literally every day with whichever KU quarterback he could find, Haughton worked on the mechanics of the snap, from initial hand placement to his first step.

“I wanted to make sure it was right in the middle of his stomach and his belly button, where he can catch it and he won’t ever have to worry about it,” Haughton said.

After last Saturday’s scrimmage, in which the first-string offense ripped off a 12-play touchdown drive on the opening series, Haughton said he felt good about his performance.

“When I watched the film, it was pretty much where I wanted it,” he said of his snaps. “A couple were to the left or the right but most of them were where I wanted them to be. I always ask any of the quarterbacks where is it going, how is it. They’ll tell me if it’s bad or to the left or make sure it’s consistent. They’ll tell me all that.”

QB update

Asked if he was close to naming a starting quarterback for the 2015 season opener on Sept. 5, Beaty indicated that battle still had a ways to go.

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’re just not. I don’t see the separation that I need to see yet. It’s kind of started to narrow itself and just when you think it’s gonna narrow itself there’s something that pops up where you’re like, ‘You know what, I need some more time.’ We’ll know when it’s right. … We want to make sure we’ve given each one of those guys an opportunity to show us who they really are.”

Junior Montell Cozart continues to take the reps with the first unit during practices, and junior-college Deondre Ford has worked his way into second-team reps with true freshmen Carter Stanley and Ryan Willis also factoring in. Beaty said early on during the offseason that he would take it up to the day before the opener if he had to but has mentioned recently that he’d like to get it settled sooner rather than later.

Freshman wall

Before preseason camp began, Yenser warned his young offensive linemen that they were going to reach a point where the grind would start to get to them.

For a handful of those players, that moment came Monday.

“A couple of freshmen have kind of hit that wall a little bit,” Yenser said. “But (they) came back and responded really well and the cool thing is those guys have each other’s backs.”

Yenser, who said his offensive line entered Tuesday healthy, said he appreciated the quick bounce-back because it was a clear indication that KU’s big bodies up front, young and old, understood the standard put in place at their position.

“We are not gonna slow down because we have some out-of-shape O-Linemen. We’re either going with you or without you. This train is gonna keep moving and you either lose weight and get in shape or you’re probably not gonna play. I promise you I can find five guys that are in shape and are tough sons of guns that will go fight somebody for four seconds every play.”