Kansas quarterback Jason Bean (17) carries against TCU during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, in Lawrence, Kan. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

Kansas football offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said this week that the offense the Jayhawks run was designed in some ways because of the skill set of quarterback Jason Bean.

After all, it was Bean, and not 2022 starter Jalon Daniels, who won the QB job during Year 1 of the Lance Leipold era at KU, and, as such, Kotelnicki and the rest of the position coaches on offense put in a system that took advantage of Bean’s strengths. One of those was his speed and ability to make plays as a runner.

In last week’s loss at Oklahoma, Bean did not run quite as much as he did in his time as the starter last season or as much as Daniels earlier this season, but Leipold said some of that was by design.

“We’ve got to be careful, you know,” Leipold said. “I thought (Bean backup) Ethan Vasko had a very nice week of practice for a true freshman who just got pulled back up to get those type of reps and stop working off cards and things. But I don’t know if we wanted to have him jump in front of 80,000 (fans) right away. So, you’ve got to be careful and try to keep him healthy and be smart right now for the short term.”

Leipold said the coaching staff would not go into games with a specific number of carries or option runs they want Bean or any of their other QBs to execute.

“Especially with what we do in the run read game, (it’s not) like, OK, he’s got to run it this many times or we’re going to script it up this many times that he has to carry it,” Leipold said.

Bean’s ability as a runner, and KU’s success with the QB run game so far this season has made it easier to transition back to Bean as this team’s QB with Daniels nursing an injury and on the sideline.

And that’s mostly because there has not been any need to make drastic changes to the offense.

“(Having Bean at QB) doesn’t change our plan or the kind of run plays we call or option plays we might call,” Kotelnicki told a group of reporters this week. “What we do is because of him, because we have him on our roster.”

During the first six weeks of the season, Daniels helped the Jayhawks jump out to a 5-0 start and played his way into the early Heisman Trophy conversation in large part because of his execution on option runs.

In that time, Daniels was KU’s second-leading rusher with 341 yards on 53 carries to go along with five touchdowns and a 6.4 yards-per-carry average.

After rushing just three times in the season opener, Daniels ran 24 times combined in the next two games, recording 85 yards on the ground in a win at West Virginia and 123 yards and two touchdowns with his legs in a win at Houston. Daniels also ran 11 times for 83 yards and one touchdown in KU’s home win over Duke. He carried it eight times in the home win over Iowa State and was already up to seven carries in the first half against TCU before getting injured.

Bean, who finished with 400 yards and two touchdowns on 92 carries in nine starts last season, ran seven times for 34 yards in the loss to TCU and he followed that up by rushing for 41 yards on 10 carries at OU.

With Bean set to make his second consecutive start this weekend at Baylor — 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday on ESPN2 — the Kansas coaches are just fine with how he has handled the QB run game in his return to the starting role. And they believe that he’ll only get better as he continues to work as the starter throughout each week in practice.

“It comes down to getting reps and getting opportunities to see running lanes through practice and games,” Kotelnicki said. “He still has great speed and he’s a good runner.”