To the editor:

Several years ago, the Lawrence Journal-World was not doing so well. It had not won many awards and was losing subscriptions. Tom Keegan was hired to help with this. However, are things any different? Has the Lawrence Journal-World won more awards? Are they selling more papers? His writing is not any better now than when he was hired. Well, fire the man.

OK, the point is not to criticize Keegan, but simply to say that he should stop calling for KU football coach David Beaty to be fired. Beaty was hired too late to recruit his first season, so in reality he has had only two years. I think that there is clear improvement in the program, and there is no need for the carousel of coaches to continue. Give the man at least two to three more years, let him grow into the position and let the team continue to progress as well.

Sure visible progress is slow if one only thinks in terms of wins and losses, but he started below the basement. However, when putting up a building the initial progress is slow because a solid foundation is needed. Building a quality program that starts with the foundation takes more than two years. We should encourage the coach rather than call for him to be fired. Should we get rid of Keegan? Not if he stops trying to get rid of Beaty. Should we get rid of Beaty? No way. Keep up the good work, coach; the fruits of your labors are not far away.