Beaty: ‘Click’s starting to happen’ with Jayhawks

KU coach David Beaty, left, pleads his case to officials in the Jayhawks' 23-17 loss to TCU on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas.

One day after nearly knocking off high-powered and 13th-ranked TCU, Kansas University’s football team hit the practice fields in Lawrence with newfound energy.

“In the meeting and as we went out to practice, I think that you can see the click’s starting to happen a little bit with the whole team,” said KU coach David Beaty, whose Jayhawks sit at 0-10 overall and 0-7 in the Big 12 heading into their final homestand of the season. “And it’s almost hard to believe, but, man, those guys have gone out there every week, every single week, and they have practiced their tails off.”

This is nothing new. Beaty and his coaching staff have done a masterful job all year of keeping heads high and spirits up despite a sixth consecutive season of disappointment and lopsided outcomes. But the fact that it still is happening, 10 weeks into a winless season, speaks to the make-up and character of the more than 100 coaches, players and support staff members associated with the program.

Even winning teams have problems. And when the losses mount at the rate they have for the Jayhawks, it’s easy to see how tempers could run wild. But, according to Beaty, that has not been a problem for this team. Along with daily improvement and development at their positions, that is the one area in which he seems to have taken the most pride.

“They’ve had great attitudes,” Beaty said. “We’ve had literally zero problems on the practice field with anyone from just having a bad day. We haven’t had hardly any of that. Kids are allowed to have a bad day every now and then. They really do what we ask them to do. They continue to believe, and I think that’s because our coaches worked really hard to show them how they’re improving and where they started and where they’re coming from. We’d all like for that process to happen a little faster than what it is, but the reality of it is it doesn’t work that way.”

No player of the week

Each week, Beaty and his staff examine the previous game in great detail to find one or two players in each phase of the game who are worthy of being named offensive, defensive or special-teams players of the week.

Sunday, after suffering a 23-17 loss at TCU, Beaty and company did not pinpoint an offensive player of the week. It marked just the second time this season a player was not singled out for outstanding play — no defensive player of the week was named following the 66-7 loss to Baylor — and Beaty said a lack of consistency was the reason for skipping the honor.

“There were some good individual performances throughout the game,” Beaty conceded. “However, one thing we look for is a consistent game, a guy that continues to play consistent throughout … we’re really looking for a consistent game from an individual or individuals, which is what we got defensively, which is why there were multiple guys in the kicking game and on defense.”

Damani Mosby and Marcquis Roberts earned defensive player of the week honors vs. TCU, while Ben Goodman and T.J. Semke earned the nod on special teams.

Injury update

Freshman quarterback Ryan Willis endured another brutal day on the field during last week’s loss at TCU, but Beaty said there was no chance his young quarterback would miss this week’s game against West Virginia.

“Ryan is just the same as he was before,” Beaty said of his bruised and battered QB. “Boy, he’s a tough dude. He looks like he’s getting a little bit better, which is good, and it doesn’t matter. He’s going to play. I think he’d punch me in the mouth if I told him that going in, but he’s that type of guy.”

In other injury news, Beaty said left tackle Jordan Shelley-Smith, who missed the past two games, continues to deal with concussion issues and remains questionable for Saturday. Beaty added that junior safety Fish Smithson — as well as a few others who have been nursing minor injuries — was recovering well and on track to play.

“It’s college football and the Big 12,” Beaty said. “Nobody’s healthy. So we’ll do the things we do in practice to make sure that we can get them trained up properly and make sure we get prepared for the game. But for the most part, we’re in great shape.”