photo by: Nick Krug

Duke defenders Kyler Brown (56) and David Helton (47) stay hot on the trail of Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart during the first quarter on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2013 at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

Don’t take this as me being a Montell Cozart or Kansas University football apologist looking for a silver lining during a few dark days.

It’s not. Overall, the Jayhawks — and specifically Cozart — have been pretty awful for seven of the eight quarters they’ve played during this barely begun 2014 season. And there’s no apologizing for that.

The Duke debacle was as bad as it’s been since head coach Charlie Weis arrived and the more and more you look back at the opener, the more and more you start to realize that the Jayhawks may very well have been lucky to get out of that one alive. Unfortunately for all parties involved, the sluggish finish to the SEMO victory probably should have been viewed as a sign of things to come.

Many people saw that heading into the season. I didn’t. In fact, I saw pretty much the exact opposite. I saw a fast start. I saw Cozart sprinting out of the gates with the kind of play that would energize and invigorate the fan base and I expected that on Sept. 16, Jayhawks everywhere would be talking more about the excitement of what’s happening instead of dwelling on the uncertainty of what may come and what to do now.

Before we worry too much about the future, be that Central Michigan this weekend, Texas the weekend after that or what the program will look like on Dec. 1, I think it’s important to gain a little perspective.

Cozart has been getting killed in the days since the Duke game and, when you’re the quarterback, pretty much at any level, that’s how it goes. You get the glory in the good days and you’re the goat in the bad. That’s nothing new and even casual sports fan know that’s the way it goes.

So don’t hold back on tossing blame at Cozart for the way the KU offense played against Duke. They were bad. He was awful. And Kansas, as we now know, stood no chance.

But do pull back on letting the Duke outing define Cozart as a college quarterback. He’s 19 years old. He has started exactly five college football games in his life and barely played in enough to make up half a season. He deserves the chance to redeem himself. He deserves time to grow. He deserves to prove he is both willing to and can get better. Maybe he has it, maybe he doesn’t, but a handful of games hardly seems like enough time to make a decision, for better or worse. If nothing else, the hard work and sacrifice he put in during the past 12 months should earn him a fair shake for a few more weeks.

All of this to a point, of course. If his Saturdays continue to look like last week, then the coaches owe it to the rest of the Jayhawks and the program in general to find a better option, perhaps even during the games. But we’re not there yet.

If I know Montell at all, I know this is killing him. Weis said Monday morning that Cozart needed a little TLC on Sunday to help get past his poor performance and I’ve talked to enough people who saw him after the Duke game to know that he took it pretty hard. He’s a confident kid. He’s had success his entire life. And most of that success has come pretty easy and in pretty exciting fashion. Days like Saturday were not in Cozart’s vocabulary.

Maybe that’s part of the problem here. During the handful of interviews we did with Cozart throughout the spring and summer, we encountered a confident guy who believed in himself a great deal and believed he was going to hit the ground running and enjoy a solid season. He still might. But too many times his reasoning behind his confidence was that the whole thing reminded him of his path to QB prominence at Bishop Miege High. There’s nothing wrong with drawing on past experiences to create confidence, calm the nerves or even fire you up to rise to a challenge. But maybe we should’ve seen such comments as a little bit of a warning sign that the young man might not quite be ready.

Cozart has all the physical tools you could want. He’s fast, long, strong and blessed with incredible quickness and good vision. And he’s a likable guy, too, which is important not only for the fan base but also for his teammates. Guys want to follow guys they like.

But simply having the right mind, body and soul for the job does not mean it’ll be all aces when you get out there and face a team that’s trying to knock your head off. Cozart still has to get used to that. And the only way to do it is by playing more games and succeeding or failing.

This is not high school. The path to him becoming KU’s starting quarterback might mirror the path he took to taking the snaps at Miege, but that’s where the similarities end. Now’s the time for Cozart to pound out a new path, one fraught with potential pitfalls and mirages, good moments and bad.

Senior wide receiver Nick Harwell said after Saturday’s game that outings like the one Cozart endured against Duke are part of the deal. “This was one of those games he’s gonna have to get under his belt,” was how Harwell put it.

Everybody has ’em. Harwell did at Miami (Ohio). Ben Heeney did during his freshman year. Heck, even KU legend Todd Reesing was sent back to the bench after saving the Jayhawks against Colorado in his first ever appearance in 2006.

The question is, will Cozart learn from his early experiences the way those guys learned from theirs? The only way to find out is to give him time and to remember along the way that the young man is doing all of this for the first time.