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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2018

David Beaty

Lawrence, Kansas

COACH DAVID BEATY: I really like the way that our players responded yesterday. I thought we had a really good job at practice, and I thought they did a good job of answering the bell. And I expected no less from them. And they really did come prepared, and they came prepared to look at themselves on video and look at themselves in the mirror. I was proud of them for that.

We've gotta execute better and be more consistent in that area, and when we do that, we'll be able to have the things that we want. The big thing for us is not letting this game beat us twice and realizing that roughly half the teams in the country are 0 and 1 and half the teams in the country are 1 and 0 right now. So what are we going to do from here? And making sure that we don't put too much focus on one game. Whether we came out on top or whether we came out where we did, we'd be having the same conversation in that regard. But I think sometimes you can learn a lot from these. Obviously we would have liked to have been on the other side, but it didn't happen that way, so we're forced to deal with the reality, which is we've gotta learn a lot from it, and I think we will just after watching the video.

Last night I was with Brian Hanni and Hawk Talk, and there was a question that was asked of me about the last play of the game and a couple other situations, but I know you guys think I'm perfect, but I'm not. That's a joke. I don't know if you got that or not. But I kind of messed that deal up pretty good.

Actually, I was talking about the No. 48 kid. He had a sack on the second-to-the-last play, I think, of the first half. I had him on the brain, and it was actually 55 that made the sack. And they were in actually cover one, which is man. They weren't in cover zero. So, yeah, I've proved I'm not perfect, which I'm sure you all didn't know that up until now.

Yeah, I made a mistake on that one for sure. And Brian and I were looking at it right after that, and I was like, oh, my goodness, that was the one where 55 sacked him. So I've watched a few thousand plays, but that's no excuse. I should have made a better call on that making sure that everybody understood.

But nonetheless, it was a very similar play. They looked almost identical, and they really did create some problems for us. So that leads me into the thing that we've gotta do a much better job of handling some of the different types of games that we saw up front.

We've got a bunch of really good players that I'm really proud to have here, but you know, they played together in their first game, and I think we probably played like that for the most part. And we've got a long way to go, but I know that those guys are committed, and I think they were -- obviously have a lot better performances in them, and I know they're going to be working hard forward to make sure that we show that we're capable of doing what we think we can do.

Couple other positives, I thought special teams played really, really well. It's one of those performances that we're really looking for. We're not fans of the four penalties. We thought those were all controllable and preventable, and it could have made for a terrific night. But as it was, they kept playing. I thought we improved in a lot of areas: Coverage, protection. I thought our punt returner did a terrific job. I think that's an understated position. I thought Kwamie did a terrific job for us. Kyle punted the ball really well in his first start for us, and we blocked a punt with Stephon, recovered a muff down there, and Gabe Rui I thought played a really good job. Very tough guy. I like him a lot. And I think he recorded the longest field goal this year, I think, at 54 yards and one of the longest in history. So he continues to be a really valuable asset for us.

So some things that we can build on, but obviously there's a lot of things that we can get better at. And the good thing is they're all very controllable and that's what makes us excited as we move forward. So let's take some questions.

Q. Official called the face mask on Dineen.
COACH DAVID BEATY: It was. It was actually Kyron. And that's who I thought it was, too, because that's who they said it was, on 29. But it was Kyron.

Q. Can you speak a little bit more about Rui's job, especially since he's entered the program maybe a little bit more about his performance on Saturday?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Yeah. He came in as a walk-on, as you guys know. And he said it last night. I mean he wasn't the guy. Liam was the guy. We really had already said, this is going to be our kicker coming in. And he came here on scholarship, and Rui had not really performed great up until that point, and then he just -- he really got focused, and he flat just beat him out. He beat him out in the fall and had a terrific season last year and became one of the more respected players on our team, which is very, very difficult for a kicker to achieve, to be honest with you, in a lot of ways. But he's a guy that definitely fits in with any of those groups in there.

Q. When you look back at the 40-yard touchdown run that Nichols. What did you say on tape about that play, and were you satisfied on the whole with that?
COACH DAVID BEATY: We weren't completely satisfied. I thought that they did a fairly nice job of recovering after giving up an early drive. I thought we, you know, when we needed them to make some stops for us, they did. And I think offensively we needed to put the ball in the end zone a couple of times, and we weren't able to do it. And we gotta play good complementary football there.

But the long run, like most, very much like the call that I talked about with Miles, if you get that picked up, it's going to be a nice run for him. Well, they picked it up. They picked it up, they cut a gap off, and we didn't cut the gap off, and it was off to the races. But that's the hard part about pressure when you're pressuring people and they brought a five-man pressure when they did that as well, is if you get it cut off, it can be dangerous. Right? And we were in a situation where we didn't have anybody on the roof. It was flat zero coverage.

Q. Mike Vollmar met with me after the game for a few minutes. What is that relationship exactly?
COACH DAVID BEATY: No. I've never met with an administrator after the game. I mean they're very supportive after the game. Yeah. I mean both him and Jeff were there. They were with us in the locker room. Very supportive guys.

Q. Khalil and Dom averaged over five yards per carry. I think they had 18 carries between them. Is there a reason that you weren't able to maybe get them more involved in that?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Yeah, lack of first downs. I mean the more plays you get to call, the more you get to allow those guys to touch the ball. That's something that we've gotta correct. We've gotta get more first downs. It gives us a new fresh set of downs. We get more opportunities that way. Simply put, to be able to get the ball in everybody's hands, you've gotta have more downs.

Q. What do you like about Stephon Robinson?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Very, very explosive. We saw that on tape when we recruited him. We knew the dude could fly. And he plays a little bit bigger than what he is. And I like that about him. He's actually a lot stronger than you think, and he can go. He's got a great burst to him. I think that's what helped him the other night.

Q. What does it take for a guy to stand out on special teams, and how does that transfer over to his position on offense, defense?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Man, that's a good question, and I mean when you said that, I mean there's guys that are coming to mind that I've played against over the years. There was a kid at Arkansas a few years back that was -- I mean this guy was -- I mean he was a beast. I mean, Darrell Stuckey, when you hear the NFL guys talk about him, you know, you're worried about how you're going to take care of this guy on this special teams play.

And I think one of the things is it's almost always guys that are just relentless in nature. They love contact. They are fearless. They fly around without regard for their body for the most part because those are high-velocity plays with high collisions, and a lot of times, a lot of times those guys are actually very -- you know, they're intellectually sound kids. They understand more than what people think. They know when to cross space. They know when a guy is showing which direction he's turning by going butt side on things. I mean that's really the characteristics that stick out.

I mean guys -- and you really think about kickoff cover guys when you think about that. But they usually show up on punt return, on punt cover, that type of deal.

Q. You were able to rotate a bunch of defensive linemen in. After watching the tape, what did you think of that, specifically some of the new guys.
COACH DAVID BEATY: You know, the good thing is we were able to do that. I don't think we got -- we didn't get Azur in as much as we would have liked to have. We didn't get, you know, a few of them in as much as we would have liked to have. Some of the guys that didn't play as much actually probably played a little bit better than the ones that did. And that was good to see.

Najee, I thought is another guy that we think he can do some things for us. We gotta get him in the game more, find some ways to get him in the game more. But giving us some depth there, I thought it helped us. It helped us slow them down. It really did. It helped us stay fresh. And you know, offensively I thought we did do one thing well. We actually controlled the ball a little bit better, and we used a lot more clock to keep our defense fresh, which was better for us, and that combined with the depth I think helped us a little bit to be in that game there at the end.

Q. The O line overall what is the assessment of their play and how they held up?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Yeah, the O line overall looked like they were playing kind of their first game together. And there were some really good things at times, and then there were some things that you look at and you're saying, you know, that's just a communication piece that you just gotta play together a little bit more. Right? And the thing is I know every one of those guys took it personally that they didn't play their best game. And the good news is they're all willing to make those changes, which is good. I know that we have a long way to go there, but I have a lot of confidence in Coach Ricker and his guys. And we've got some depth there, too. And we've got guys that can come in and play, and we're going to use more offensive linemen. We didn't really roll in guys the other day as much as we'd like to, and just talking to Coach Ricker over the last couple of days, we have pretty good players there that we have enough depth to keep people fresh. Guys shouldn't have to play 80 plays a game. I think that'll help us because we actually have depth that is quality depth. So we gotta do a better job of doing that.

Q. This week Fontana is starting at center.
COACH DAVID BEATY: You know what, I don't see any reason why that would change unless he gets beat out throughout the week. But you know, we still have a lot of confidence in him. We think we've identified the issue that he had, and we think it's very fixable. Unfortunately it showed up, but we have to deal with it, and we've identified what we know to be the problem, and I know he'll make the necessary adjustments.

Q. Was it a wet hand?
COACH DAVID BEATY: You know, I think that had a little bit to do with it, but there were some other things mechanically that we can fix, pretty easy to fix.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Some good, some not so good. But once again, the thing I liked about him is he has a don't-blink attitude. I mean he wanted to get in there and was excited about getting up in their face and playing some press coverage and really attacking those guys. Did some good things. I thought he was physical at times on the edge, which was good. But you know, he's still a young guy, but he's got a bright future. I think he's going to be a really good player.

Q. Fourth down, you took a couple timeouts before those. Can you just take us inside the discussion or the headset? What are all the factors when you decide to take a timeout?
COACH DAVID BEATY: I mean I think obviously every situation is unique. I think a lot of it has to do with where it happens in the game; is it early in the game or is it in the second half of the game. It depends on where you're at, you know, on the field. And then, you know, there's some -- I think there's a unique area for a lot of teams right there between the 35 and the 40, you know, that's one of those very unique places on the field where you have really three decisions that you could make. And you're not always sure which one's going to be the right one, but you gotta play the percentages and know how you've been doing offensively, how have you been playing defensively, if you're going to give it back to them, and then how has your kicker been kicking. And then if you do make the kick and you still have to score again, you know, what does your field position look like, if you're going to trade 3 for 7 possibly. And sometimes those are just chances that you have to take as you look at the statistics and analytics that go into it.

Q. How much can you game plan for that before game day and how much has to be done in the moment?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Well, some of it can't be done before game day because you don't know the elements. Like the other night we chose to go with the wind at our back in the fourth quarter where we had that -- there was one call. And we felt pretty good about it, but the wind died significantly down in the second half, significantly. It was not blowing like it was in that first half.

That kind of goes into it a little bit. Rui hit the first one really good. He hit it as good as I've ever seen him hit a ball. I think it was from, what, 54 yards, something like that, but that thing would have been good from probably 60, 64. And it went way through it. It wasn't like it was close. And you gotta hit the ball right, and the thing that you didn't see is Gagen made a really nice hold on that thing because it was a low hold. But you don't always hit it that solid, particularly on long field goals.

So, you know, those field goals as you look at the analytics, those, even with him, are about 50/50 at best. So just because he hit the first one doesn't necessarily mean he's going to hit the second one, and you also have to think about field position, how's your defense been playing. In that particular situation, I talked about it last night, our defense had started playing pretty well. We felt like they could get a stop, and they did. They got a stop. We got the ball back on the 45. We didn't do anything with it. We punted the ball, and then we got the muff punt. So it worked out for us, but it doesn't always work out. You just gotta go with what you think is the best decision at that time based on all the information you have.

Q. When it comes to timeouts, is that just you want to make sure you get it right? Is that kind of what it comes down to, you want to make sure you've thought it through?
COACH DAVID BEATY: Oh, yes. In that particular situation I felt like the game for us was really -- it was kind of a critical time. And we're not going to just burn those things if we don't have to. They're very, very valuable in that second half. And it turned out it probably paid off, because we really needed to make sure we were in the right position there. It paid off, but it doesn't always pay off. It could have just as easily went the other way. So you just gotta make the best decision and then go out there and execute.

Q. Tell me your scout on Central Michigan.
COACH DAVID BEATY: Big team. Just like they were last year. Really big team. Terrific linebacker. Guy is a really good player. I think he's an NFL-type guy. They say he's one of the smartest players on the team, makes a lot of plays. They got an NFL corner, I think, is really good, and then they got a bunch of big dudes up front on the defensive line. Another big offensive line that he's got. The quarterback is very different from the one they had last year. I think he was their leading rusher, if I'm not mistaken, or at least he carried the ball the most. And he's a big dude. He's a big ol' guy. Not the fastest guy like the Morris kid was, but he is a big dude. And he ran the ball quite a bit for them. He threw pretty good. It was 17 of 27. I thought the guy poses some problems. He's a lot different than what they were last year with regard to how he moves around, but he's definitely capable of hurting you. He can hurt you with his arm, and he's certainly a big dude. He's not easy to tackle. You get in third and short situations, I mean, the quarterback run is something you have to be aware of.

I think they do a really good job on special teams because Bonamego is one of those -- he's a special teams coordinator from the NFL, and he's always going to have them ready to go. They were missing some starters the other day, and when you turn on the tape, you really don't sense that you've got backup in there. I mean their nickel played pretty well, and their No. 17 wasn't there. I'm not sure where he was, but he wasn't there. He's a good player, 17 is, but his backup played really, really well. They had a couple guys ejected, and both of those guys were pretty good players. They shouldn't be with them, I don't think, in the first half, but in the second half we're going to have to deal with them.

I think they do a good job in the kicking game. They're opportunistic defensively. They had three turnovers in the first four drives, and offensively they've got some weapons. They got some weapons. So it's going to be a tough task going on the road, but I know our guys are excited about it, and we feel like it's a good matchup.

Hey, thanks a lot, y'all. Have a good one.

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