photo by: John Young

Kansas freshman Bryce Torneden, left, and freshman Shola Ayinde (15) work on kick-off coverage during practice at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

Kansas football coach David Beaty tipped his hand as to how he believes the team’s three quarterbacks who have played this season — Montell Cozart, Ryan Willis and Carter Stanley — are imperfect fits for his offense.

Beaty did so when he pointed out that red-shirting New Orleans recruit Tyriek Starks was the first quarterback recruited to fit the current offense, although Stanley was recruited out of high school and Deondre Ford out of junior college after Beaty took the Kansas job.

Recruiting a quarterback from the graduate-transfer pool or from a junior college In the event Starks is not ready to run the offense by next season is a tempting thought, but doing so would deny the coaching staff the chance to recruit a high school player at another position who could be developed for four or five years.

Kansas already will need to go that route at cornerback, a position at which Kansas will be thin next season.

When talking about how fortunate the program is to have Murphy Grant in charge of supervising the rehabilitation of injured players, Beaty mentioned how well “the ACL guys” are progressing. Two of those he referenced play cornerback.

“They’re all off their crutches and looking good,” Beaty said. “Shola (Ayinde) looks amazing. I can’t believe he just had surgery not too long ago. (Long snapper John) Wirtel, (walk-on cornerback) Justin Williams had ACL surgery last week.”

Beaty marveled at modern medicine.

“Murph is so good with them,” Beaty said. “Those guys, they’re under anesthesia walking around in our facility the day they get out of that, which is amazing because they used to sit in a bed for weeks. I mean, Murph is so good at what he does with those guys. You would not believe those guys have just had ACL surgery.”

Ayinde, who red-shirted in 2015 as a freshman, should be ready to play next season, but even with all the medical advancements athletes still tend to perform better in their second year after ACL surgery than the first.

Marnez Ogletree and Brandon Stewart are seniors, so recruiting a juco corner is a must, a bigger priority than bringing in another quarterback.