The once-in-a-lifetime Air Raid show put on by Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans that Kansas head coach David Beaty witnessed as receivers coach for Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M didn’t in any way resemble the three years of offensive duds Beaty’s teams have plodded through at Kansas.

A porous offensive line and constantly revolving quarterback door tend to share all the blame for the lousy showings. Wide receivers largely have escaped blame and that’s probably not fair.

Aside from Steven Sims, KU hasn’t developed a productive receiver during the Beaty years, at least not yet. Juniors Evan Fairs and Daylon Charlot have exciting potential, so that could change. So far, though, KU receivers have been worse than so-so.

Beaty used just one scholarship in the most recent recruiting class on a wide receiver and it went to juco Stephon Robinson. He’s the 15th wide receiver to take a scholarship from Beaty. Eight went to high school players, four to four-year transfers (Charlot, La Quvionte Gonzalez, Quincy Perdue and Joshua Stanford) and two to jucos (Kerr Johnson and Robinson).

Five of the 15 receivers left the program with eligibility remaining: Gonzalez, Chase Harrell, Travis Jordan, Perdue and Stanford.

Robinson and redshirt freshman Takulve Williams are scheduled to make their KU debuts in the fall and Kenyon Tabor of Derby, perhaps the most talented receiver Beaty has recruited to KU, missed all last season with an injury and was not cleared to participate in spring football.

KU will need better performance from its receivers than it received a year ago.

Sure, better blocking would give quarterbacks more time to find open receivers, but the pass-catchers could help matters by getting open more quickly. Given Beaty’s background coaching receivers and the emphasis he puts on the position during recruiting, this figured to be an area of strength, but it hasn’t turned out that way. Even when receivers broke open in 2017, they dropped far too many balls.

Of the 15 receivers given scholarships, only two have had a 300-yard receiving season. Steven Sims has had three of them, Fairs one.

A look at 300-yard receiving seasons during Beaty’s tenure as head coach: