Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart (2) pulls back to throw during the first quarter on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

No young Pop Warner quarterback thinks to himself, “One day, I want to be a game manager.”

In the highly competitive Big 12 though, that’s exactly what University of Kansas coach David Beaty needs his QB to be.

“You know, the quarterback that runs your offense — from a coaching standpoint for me — has always been about who manages that game,” Beaty said. “It doesn’t have to be about a guy that can win it all the time, but he certainly can’t lose it for you, and that’s a lot more common than you think.”

KU football fans, no doubt, know exactly what Beaty means. The Jayhawks’ offense this season often has kept them out of games with untimely interceptions. During the team’s current six-game losing streak, Kansas quarterbacks have combined to throw 14 interceptions on 230 attempts — contributing mightily to the team’s FBS-worst season turnover total (25).

Fourth-year junior QB Montell Cozart added this past week two to his 2016 sum of six, in a home loss to Oklahoma State. But Beaty thought both Cowboys interceptions weren’t his starting quarterback’s fault.

Cozart, who threw for 250 yards and a touchdown in the OSU loss, understands his coach’s point, too, and doesn’t take it personally when Beaty asks the QB to manage the game. Cozart realizes, after all, the offensive coordinator won’t limit him to handing the ball off.

“Just the overall term of managing the game can go both ways of being negative and positive,” Cozart said, “but I don’t take it as a negative thing, coming from coach.”

When Beaty coached wide receivers at Texas A & M, he gained a better appreciation for the value of a so-called manger handling a team’s snaps.

“Kevin Sumlin, he had a bunch of really cool little sayings that I hold on to, and one of them is: ‘There’s a lot more games that are lost than won every Saturday.’ And he’s exactly right,” Beaty said, referring to giveaways derailing a team’s chances of competing. “I mean, that happens, and we’ve been a part of it (at KU). We were a part of it when I was there a couple times.”

In his time at Kansas, Cozart has struggled with ball security — some games far more often than others. His hope, like Beaty’s, is his worst days are behind him. The QB feels better health-wise than in September, when a shoulder injury impacted his throwing. Cozart said when Beaty talks to him about managing a game, often it involves making routine plays and taking advantage of whatever hole the opposing defense gives him.

“When they’re starting to load the box up, being able to check to quick game and get us out of bad plays,” Cozart gave as an example of management duties. “And when we get the call from the sideline, just being a game manager and taking advantage of what the defense is trying to do.”

Thinking of the task at hand in straightforward terms, Beaty argues, should help quarterbacks avoid putting KU in troublesome scenarios.

“You get an appreciation for just simple management of the game, and if you do that and you try to just focus on what you need to do and you’re prepared when you go into the game, it actually slows it down for you, and your success level rises really quickly,” Beaty said.

The Jayhawks (1-6 overall, 0-4 Big 12) play Saturday at No. 16 Oklahoma (5-2, 4-0).