photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart roars after a run against West Virginia during the first quarter on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013 at Memorial Stadium.

In an all orange auditorium tucked between Boone Pickens Stadium and Gallagher-Iba Arena a couple of weeks ago in Stillwater, Okla., Kansas University football coach Charlie Weis uttered a few words that hinted at the fact that he might be leaning toward changing his offense.

“I think we know where we’d like to go,” Weis said in reference to his offense, just moments after his team lost 42-6 to Oklahoma State and did so with true freshman quarterback Montell Cozart playing the entire second half.

Exactly one week later, Weis and the Jayhawks went there and the result was the program’s first Big 12 victory since November 2010, a 31-19 whipping of West Virginia at happy-once-again Memorial Stadium.

The direction Weis has taken this offense — is less than two years in charge, remember — is about much more than just changing quarterbacks. It’s about changing an old-school, ultra-successful, wildly accomplished ball coach’s thought methodology altogether and making him squirm a little in the process.

When Weis arrived at Kansas, he brought with him years worth of success in the pro-style offense that features and makes stars out of drop-back passers like Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps and has put countless players in the NFL and worked wonders for many who already were there when Weis worked with them.

Because of that success and his confidence in his own ability, Weis spent the better part of two seasons believing that it could work at Kansas. But the Jayhawks do not have the offensive line nor the skill position players to make such a system work and, in the Big 12 Conference, where virtually every other team is throwing hay-makers week in and week out, Weis’ inability to put points on the board put the Jayhawks in a hole.

Instead of being stubborn to the bitter end, Weis elected to change. If we’ve learned anything about the guy during his first two years in town it’s that he’s not afraid to check under every rock to see if he might find something, anything, that could help his team or heal his offense — all in the name of winning.

After tweaking the depth chart, moving players in and out of the lineup and replacing precious hours of sleep with more film breakdown, Weis reached the classic conclusion that states, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” and then went on to have a heck of a good time last Saturday, one that several Jayhawks and Jayhawk fans won’t soon forget.

Cozart was a big part of it; and his ability and maturity beyond his years seem to have KU well positioned to take this idea and run with it (no pun intended) into the future.

But, to me, the biggest tip of the cap here goes to Weis. Yes, the players made the plays — the O-Linemen blocked their tails off, Cozart was nearly flawless and James Sims once again looked like one of the best backs in the Big 12. But executing the game plan the coaches come up with is what these guys do, and, for most of them, it’s easy — even if it’s a total overhaul in a short time — because they’re so hungry for something good to happen.

Swallowing your pride, discarding 30-plus years of offensive wisdom with a proven track record and joining the masses in the wild and crazy spread movement is not as easy. But Weis did it. And the Jayhawks won.

More important than that, it looks like he’s willing to do it for a long time.