photo by: John Young

Kansas coach David Beaty watches the quarterbacks warm up during the first day of spring practice on Sunday afternoon at the practice fields north of Memorial Stadium.

photo by: John Young

Kansas coach David Beaty watches the quarterbacks warm up during the first day of spring practice on Sunday afternoon at the practice fields north of Memorial Stadium.

Saturday after Saturday during a season in which his team averaged just 15 points per game and scored fewer than 21 points in 10 consecutive games to close a winless season, we heard first-year Kansas football coach David Beaty express his disappointment in the KU offense.

“We’ve gotta find a way to get more production on offense,” Beaty would say one week.

“We have to score more points,” he’d say another.

Yet, it never really happened.

In fact, KU’s point total dropped for five consecutive weeks to open the season — 38, 23, 14, 13, 7 — and then started over for a pair of three-game dips during the next six weeks — 20, 10, 7 and 20, 17, 0.

A big reason for that, of course, was the personnel with which Beaty and then-offensive coordinator Rob Likens were working.

A true freshman quarterback. A number of first-year players — both freshmen and transfers — that put KU near the top of the nation in that category. Overmatched offensive linemen. Inexperienced wide receivers.

Whether you chose to squint hard enough to see that some of those players actually had long-term potential or, more likely, simply chose to look away, the issues surrounding the offense were undeniable and made winning games seem like an unlikely outcome.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach David Beaty pulls off his headset after an offensive series during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at Memorial Stadium.

So, last Sunday, when Beaty announced that he was going to take over play-calling duties and work more closely with the quarterbacks this season, surprise never entered my mind.

After all, as much as I don’t think it’s completely fair to condemn Likens for the dud that was the 2015 offense, he was the man in charge and, as Beaty’s most recent action seems to suggest, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

Now, here’s the catch. We don’t actually know if Beaty will be able to do this right. He knows the offense extremely well. I don’t have any doubt about that. And he has had success calling offenses as a head coach at the high school level. But this isn’t high school. And offensive success at a place like Kansas is much tougher to come by.

The fear expressed by those who think Beaty is making a big mistake here is that adding the title of play-caller to his already packed plate will spread him too thin on Saturdays and cause all of his other duties to suffer as a result.

Time will tell if that’s the case, but we don’t know yet that it will be, so I think we have to give the man a chance to prove what he can do.

From what I’ve been told about this offense — the “true Air Raid” that Beaty wants to run — it’s not that difficult to understand and operate. It’s based a lot on the quarterback reading what he sees on the field and does not really involve a ton of work from the man calling the plays on the sideline on game days.

Put another way, a lot of the work Beaty will do to call the offense this season will be done in practice, where he will drill into the minds of his quarterbacks every detail of what he wants them to do and present them with every possible scenario they could face on Saturdays.

From there, it’s up to the quarterbacks and those around them to execute and make plays. And isn’t that how it’s supposed to be anyway?

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach David Beaty talks with a discouraged Ryan Willis (13) after Willis' interception which was returned for a Texas Tech touchdown late in the fourth quarter on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Memorial Stadium.

Beaty should benefit from something Likens did not have the luxury of working with — better players. Although KU still has a long way to go in terms of upgrading its personnel, just about every position in KU’s offense should be better this season than it was a year ago.

Linemen are a year older, stronger and more savvy. The wide receivers now have some game experience and should have a better understanding of college football. Similarly, KU’s lead running backs are in their second seasons with the program. Tight end Ben Johnson is an ever-improving junior. And the incoming recruiting class features at least one or two athletes who could help right away, with RB Khalil Herbert and WR Evan Fairs being the most likely candidates.

If any or all of those players take a step forward, that should make life easier on Beaty and his QBs.

It may seem like a lot to put on a quarterback’s shoulders, especially an inexperienced one. And other than Montell Cozart, in some way, shape or form all of KU’s other QBs are still very much inexperienced. But this is not the NFL and KU can’t go sign a veteran free agent.

KU also can’t move forward hoping to win games in the Big 12 Conference with the offense it put on the field in 2015.

It’s a bold move, one that could either pay off and make Beaty look brilliant or blow up in his face.

But didn’t he have to do something?

Watch me debate this topic with Journal-World Sports Editor Tom Keegan on an emergency edition of KU Sports Extra: