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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2016

David Beaty

Lawrence, Kansas

Ohio - 37, Kansas - 21

DAVID BEATY: First of all, just give credit to Coach Solich and his team there at Ohio. They played a really good football game today. I said it earlier in the week, that that team is not going to beat themselves two weeks in a row. They don't really ever let that happen, and they certainly have not let it happen two weeks in a row very much in his career, and they made the necessary adjustments from last week. I thought they played a really smart football game.

You know, they ran the ball really, really well. They converted early on 3rd down. They were 5 of 6 on 3rd down early in the game. They went 9 of 22 on 3rd down, which is not all that great, but 5 of 6 early kind of told the tale of getting off to a good start for them to put some points on the board.

That first drive was big for them, getting the ball in the end zone from a long way away, and we had some chances to get off the field there and we weren't able to take advantage of it, and that's a big momentum swing that -- we have that goal to be able to score on the first drive or get off the field on that first drive, and we weren't able to do that. So they got off to a good start there.

Listen, the tale of the tale is in the mistakes. They made very few, and we made a ton. We've got to get better in the area of punt return. We've got three muffs in the last two weeks, and not acceptable. Now, the good news for us is the ones today were absolute technique errors. If we just keep our eyes on the ball all the way through, we make those catches, and just make good decisions and we'll get better. We'll get better. There's no doubt about that.

Offensively we've got to do a better job early in the game to be able to help our defense out. They played -- I know over 40 plays in the first half, and I think we played like 15, and the defense, every time I looked up, they were out there. We returned a touchdown on a kickoff return, and they had to go right back out there. Our defense really did some really good things throughout the game by being put in some really poor field position, and they got nine points out of those three muffs or turnovers right down there inside our own our 30-, 35-yard line, and that was really good to see. That was really good to see.

I thought we had a little bit of a momentum surge there at halftime coming out, and it was good to see that, but we didn't do enough.

Let's take some questions.

Q. How disappointing is it that some of those mistakes are from some veteran guys on the team? Does that compound it?
DAVID BEATY: Whether it's veterans or it's young guys, you know, those things hurt you in games. I mean, turnovers, I mean, they change lives. We talk about it all the time. We've got to be really, really good in that department, and we were not very good in that department last year nationally, and today, we hurt ourselves in that area.

And we knew that going into the game. We knew that when you play a good team like this you can't turn the football over because they're not, and they're not going to beat themselves, so you've got to match that, and if you do that, then you've got a chance. You take nine points off the board from those three turnovers, and that's where I take my hat off to the defense because that could have been much worse than it was. But man, they did a nice job being firemen and coming and putting out that fire, and they did a good job of holding the field, because that kicker, man, that dude is good now. I think he was the special teams player of the week. That dude is money; he buried those kicks. That dude is a really good player, so that helped them.

Q. How bad a look is it with the scoreboard showing you're down 28-7 to get a taunting penalty?
DAVID BEATY: It is very disappointing, and you know, the thing about that is we know better. You know, we talk about it. We actually rep it. We practice it, and it wasn't really a taunting penalty, it was a guy that came off the sideline, and you can't do that trying to celebrate, and we actually practice that. We actually have mock games where we practice where they can go to and where they can't and how you have to stand and wait for that guy to get back to you, and that's where focus comes in.

I mean, the thing we left that locker room with today is your focus is everything. If you lose it for a second, it changes everything. So the focus has got to be great. We lost our focus on two punt returns, and it cost us. We lost our focus on that snap, and it cost us on that punt. We lost our focus on that particular play, and it cost us.

You know, you lose your focus, that's where everything starts. You lose your focus and you start focusing on the wrong things, and you start having problems.

Q. Was the whole first half just too much for the guys to overcome?
DAVID BEATY: You know, there was a lot of things that went wrong in the first half. Offensively not being able to get a first -- I think we went into halftime with maybe a 1st down. That's ridiculous. As explosive as we are and as good as we are offensively, and I do believe we are better than that for sure. For us not to have a 1st down -- you know what, they're a good football team and they're a really good defense; there's no doubt about that. I mean, they're talented and they played a lot of ball, but they didn't make any just ridiculous adjustments that I thought would have prevented us from being able to do that. We just didn't make plays, I mean, just routine plays, being able to handle things up front from a run game perspective. We knew they were going to cut the box up. We knew that. We worked on it all week. We've just got to execute it, and we didn't do it.

That is just -- for us, we are still in that progress of building this program. We're still there. And our guys -- we've talked to them about it until we're blue in the face. One win does not make you something special. You've got to go back to what got you there, and we didn't do it this week but we will next week. We'll get ready to go play Memphis, and we'll get on our first road trip, and I know those guys will find their focus again. I know they'll learn a lot from this game.

Q. You mentioned blocking the punter. Was that just an issue of the blocking breaking down?
DAVID BEATY: You're talking the lateral?

Q. On 4th down that ended up being a yard in the first half?
DAVID BEATY: You know, I can't remember that specific play right now. I'll look at it on tape, and I can't remember exactly what happened there. I know that we didn't execute it correctly, and there's details in there that cause you not to be successful when you don't execute it correctly.

You know, we had one there with Montell, we were about to decide to go for it on that one 4th down in that third quarter, and then he got whacked pretty good. His shoulder is kind of jacked up. I mean, I wasn't ready to put Ryan in because Ryan hadn't played at that point, and we were in a 4th and 3 now as opposed to a 4th and 1. It wasn't just an absolute running situation. So he had not thrown and he wasn't warm, so we decided to go ahead and punt it, and we pinned them down there, and that was a good decision for us.

Q. Were you anticipating going in that Montell would be in for that third series?
DAVID BEATY: We think Montell has actually done a really nice job in practice, and Ryan actually has, too. He really has. Ryan knows the things that he's got to get better at, and so does Montell. Montell, we had planned for the second half to put Ryan in on that third series, but we came out and Montell had a hot hand. He was going pretty good. We scored back-to-back drives, and the thing that I really was proud of those guys on, particularly Ryan, he kept his demeanor good. He kept everything about him really, really good. Now, he's a competitor. He wants to play. He wants to play. I mean, but I was really proud of the kid because I know he wants to play, and he understood when we stayed with Montell during that period.

Q. After the first quarter, they had favorable field position multiple times. Evaluate how your red zone defense toughened up.
DAVID BEATY: Man, they did a great job. I mean, they really did. How many field goals did that kid kick, five, six? Five? That's a good deal now, and I know Coach Solich talked about it coming in, they needed to score touchdowns when they were in the red zone. From our standpoint, that was going to be a challenge because I knew he was going to focus on that this week, and our stiffened their neck and they made some really, really big plays down there. I thought Tevin made a great play down there to keep a touchdown from going in. I think Bazie Bates made a really good play down there and knocked a ball out of a guy's hands when he had it. He basically had it possessed; he didn't possess it all the way through. There was some great individual plays there. Marcquis made an unbelievable play and almost came up with that interception.

You know, the thing that I was really proud of is when we started making that run, I thought our defense was actually matching that, too. They were continuing to help and give us an opportunity, which was good to see. You know, it was -- it's just a deal where we needed to keep it going offensively. It got to a point where we were going to cut it close, and then we had to punt that football, and then next thing you know we're back in a hole again, now the lead extends, and your play selection changes. It changes when you're down by so many scores and not enough time left.

We've got to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we understand how to execute early in ballgames because that way you can play in just regular call situations.

Q. Talk about Montell's shoulder. Do you have any indication if that's a serious thing at this point?
DAVID BEATY: Well, I think he's going to be all right. Murph does a great job with those guys. I think he probably could have went back in, but I didn't want to take a chance on it just because I watched him fall, and when I saw him fall, I saw kind of how his arm fell a little bit. I think he'll be okay, but it's a little bit early to tell. I'll kind of find out here afterwards when we get our medical report.

Q. When the rushing yards are at a trickle, how does that affect the play calling?
DAVID BEATY: Well, you know, it affects it. You'd like to be a better run team obviously on early downs, and we weren't effective early in the game, and that was a situation that is not good to see. You've got to be effective running that football early in the game, particularly if you give up some scores, because scores changes things a little bits, and that affects your play calling, but there's no excuse. There's no excuse.

They did a nice job with their game plan. They did a really nice job of clamping the coverage down a little bit. They did a nice job of following Quv and clamping him. They did a good job, but listen, we know people are going to do that to us, so we've prepared for it, and we just didn't execute well today.

But I still love that team. I love our guys. They're resilient. There was a lot of disappointment in that locker room, but you can tell they're ready to go back to work, which is what I love about this team. I like our guys, and we'll be okay moving forward.

Q. It seemed like on that last drive the defense got them the 3rd down three or four times, but they kind of just ran out of gas.
DAVID BEATY: Yeah, they did, but that last drive, that goes on the first half. When we cannot -- we had one 1st down going into halftime, I think, if I'm not mistaken, and when we can't get our defense off the field for more than three plays at a time, that's going to be a problem down the road if you're not putting points on the board. I mean, there was one time when we hit a quick pass, and I think they were off the field for 15 seconds, which we scored, we had two quick scores that really still kind of put that defense back out there. The time of possession was unreal, 46 minutes to 13:56. I mean, I haven't been a part of many of those. A lot of people will talk about, hey, the no-huddle, but you watch the tempo, that wasn't the deal today. We weren't able to go fast because we weren't putting 1st downs together, and when you put 1st downs together, the tempo starts showing up. When you're not putting 1st downs together, it's hard to go fast. It's hard to go fast. You've only got three plays. So we've got to be better in that area.

Q. During the course of the season, you don't have time to get them stronger, so how can they get better, become better run blockers?
DAVID BEATY: Well, they've just got to keep working at it. We do. We're like everybody else. You do have to maintain your strength levels throughout a season. You absolutely can. We're in a development phase, so we still develop our guys. I mean, our guys probably lift more than most teams because we know we have to get stronger and we have to get faster.

We've got a lot of young guys playing. I get that. But the only way you get stronger is to continue to lift and get proper rest because that's all part of it, too, and then we've just got to be better technically. We're going to look at the tape and we're going to see a lot of technical issues that we're going to learn from this week. Last week, as great as it was, we learned a lot from it, but I guarantee you we didn't learn as much from it as we're going to learn this week. We're going to learn a lot this week, and it starts getting glaring to our guys, our coaches, everybody involved, myself.

Q. How do you address the muffs in practice because I'm sure it's not happening in practice, only in games. How do you address it?
DAVID BEATY: Well, first of all, we prepare multiple people for that, so it's not just a Quv thing. We've got upwards of probably I'd say 14, 15 guys who are catching punts daily. We're developing for the future, and we're developing for now. You know, you just keep working at it, and you keep using technique. Both those punts, listen, you guys know my relationship with Quv. I love him to death. Both those punts, exactly when he came off the field I was able to say, Quv, you took your eyes down and looked at the rush; what happened? I've never seen you do that. I've never seen you do that. The good news is you can fix that.

And the second one was a little bit more concerning because he did it again, and he had called fair catch. He's going to learn from that, and we had a little private conversation right after I left that locker room just a second ago because he's a talented guy, and we need him to do those things for us. He can do it. He catches the ball really, really well for us, but when you take a technique error, it's going to cost you. It's going to show up. So he's got to continue to work on being more of a disciplined individual, and that'll help him cure that.

Fish does a good job back there, as well. Sims does a good job back there, as well. We've got some opportunities to put some other guys in, but we need Quv to do that for us. He's a dynamic guy, and he can do it, so we'll get him fixed this week.

Thank you, guys.

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