photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart (2) drops back to throw during warmups on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tenn.

It was in finance class on Monday morning when Montell Cozart first came up with the idea.

After 40-plus hours of beating himself up over what was arguably the worst performance of his Kansas career, Cozart had a thought of something he could do that might help make up for the two-interception, one-fumble outing that led to the Jayhawks getting buried by Memphis and falling to 1-2 on the season just a couple of days earlier.

“I was sitting in class and it just struck me that I wanted to talk to the guys,” Cozart said. “I just wanted to let those guys know that game was on me. I feel like I let everyone down. I didn’t even give us a chance and I just wanted to let those guys know I’ll be much better this week and then going into Tech next week.”

After clearing it with KU coach David Beaty beforehand, Cozart addressed the team at Monday’s practice. He and fellow captain Fish Smithson talked for about 15 minutes, with Cozart going first, about what went wrong and what the team needed to do to get past it.

It wasn’t the first time last week the Jayhawks went with the approach Cozart dubbed “a little heart-to-heart.”

On the sideline at Memphis, in the locker room after the game and on the trip home later that day, several of Cozart’s teammates reached out to him to let him know they were still with him.

Such a gesture can be vital for quarterbacks at all levels of football. And to Cozart, it meant the world.

“It was great,” he said. “Josh Ehambe and Brandon Stewart were the first guys. They probably weren’t even out of their pads and I had text messages from those guys already.

“It just shows that those guys have your back and they have your best interest at heart. Even on the sideline, after the turnovers, Josh came up to me and was in my ear, motivating me, giving me advice. It just gives you that drive, as a captain and a quarterback, to go out there and do it for those guys and get KU back to where we belong.”

Whether Cozart will get that opportunity again this season remains to be seen. Sophomore Ryan Willis fared no better during his time on the field against Memphis and red-shirt freshman Carter Stanley still has yet to play any meaningful snaps.

Now in the middle of a bye week that came at just the right or wrong time, depending on your perspective, Beaty and his staff are forced to move forward juggling the question that asks which quarterback is the best option for Kansas.

Asked if he would send himself back out there if the choice were solely his, Cozart offered diplomatic response.

“I feel like, just in this bye week, it’s worth seeing how we both go through it and how we bounce back from it,” he said. “Of course I would love to be back out there, but whatever decision coach makes I support it and I know at some point my number will be called and when I get back in there I gotta take advantage of it and get things back flowing.”

Asked to provide the case for him being given another shot, Cozart reemphasized his disappointment about last week’s showing.

“Just kind of what I told my guys on Monday,” he said. “I let you down, you can bet that won’t happen again, you won’t ever see that happen again and I’m gonna give us a chance every time we go out there to go up and down the field, put up some numbers, put up some points and we’re gonna be explosive.

“I just want those guys to know that I’ve got their back and what happened last week against Memphis won’t happen again.”