Blue Team quarterback Michael Cummings (14) is taken out at the knees by White Team safety Michael Glatczak during a quarterback run on Saturday, April 25, 2015 at Memorial Stadium.

Dallas ? Injured during the spring game and thought to be out for the 2015 season, senior quarterback Michael Cummings recently shocked his head coach, just a handful of weeks removed from knee surgery.

“When that happened to him in the spring, man, it broke my heart,” KU coach David Beaty said Monday at Big 12 media days in Dallas. “The kid had surgery in the middle of June, and I looked out my window the other day and (saw) him throwing the ball already. He is a unique guy. So if anybody can make it back this year, it would be him. We’re obviously trying to see if we can maybe get another year for him. That would be great.”

Despite the recent throw-and-tell session, Cummings remains a long shot to play in 2015. That leaves the QB position in the hands of junior Montell Cozart and incoming freshmen Carter Stanley and Ryan Willis.

Beaty did not say — and likely does not yet know — which quarterback would be KU’s starter heading into the season, but he did say that Cozart had the inside track.

Always recruiting

It took Beaty less than two minutes and fewer than 40 words to use Monday’s platform as an opportunity to recruit.

“One of the big things for me is we are located right now in one of the finest, most fertile grounds for high school athletes in the country,” Beaty began after saying good morning. “And those athletes are coached by some of the finest high school coaches in the country. I’m an old Texas high school football coach, and I consider those guys to be my brothers. So it’s a good deal for me to be back here today around those guys.”

Contact limited

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced early Monday morning that the Big 12 had adopted a conference-wide limit on in-season contact opportunities to no more than two per week, including game day.

Several Big 12 coaches said the new restriction would not impact their programs much because they already had the safety of their student-athletes in mind. And Beaty whole-heartedly agreed.

“I don’t think that that is going to be something that’s going to change the way that we do business,” Beaty said. “It may for some folks, but for us it’s one of those deals where I think that we’ll be able to adjust to that fairly easily. We’ll just fit it into our plan.”

Follow the leader

TCU (32) and Baylor (10) garnered all of the first-place votes from the media in the preseason poll and on Monday Beaty talked about how those programs, which not long ago were closer to the bottom of the standings than the top, offered hope for a program like Kansas.

“What two great examples for a program like us,” Beaty said. “I’ll tell you, (Baylor coach) Art Briles, former Texas high school football coach, one of my coaching heroes coming up, I watched that guy win a bunch of state championships right over there at the old Texas Stadium.

Gary Patterson, one of the finest defensive minds in the country, one of the best head coaches in the country. Happy to see the success those guys are having, and, yes, it gives us confidence knowing that those programs at one point were kind of where we are today. I’m excited about the opportunity moving forward, and, obviously, we want to be able to recreate that type of success at our place.”