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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2018

David Beaty

Lawrence, Kansas

Kansas - 55

Rutgers - 14

DAVID BEATY: I think you just heard a bunch of questions in there so I don't want to repeat myself but I just want to take my hat off to our staff, I think Clint Bowen has done a terrific job preparing our defense coming into this season. And so far the things that we have tried to develop with that, within that side of the ball, have come to fruition.

Now we are heading into a different animal here next week with a terrific opponent in our conference. So we're going to have to continue to improve and there's no doubt. We left a lot out there today in both areas, both sides of the ball and in the kicking game, that if we can get better we're going to have a chance to be a decent football team. So why don't we just take some questions.

Q. When you're entering this week it's not probably realistic, but did you think you can get six takeaways again and but then they go out and do it. How, what did you see out of the defense group in the past few days that allowed them to replicate that?
DAVID BEATY: Well talking about it going into the game, they're a West Coast offense and they do a really good job. Their offensive coordinator has been around for a long time and he's really a talented guy. We knew that we could not let those guys get going in the run game. We had to take that dimension away and make them one dimensional in the other area. If we did that we felt like we might give ourself a better chance against a really talented good sized Big-Ten football team, I mean, and we're fortunate that it came to pass. I thought our guys played well early in the run and that was critical. Stopping the run is key and then getting the run going. We were able to get the run going early and I thought that helped us on both sides of the ball. Now we got a couple of pick sixes which was great and the byproduct sometimes is you got to go back on the field a few times quick. And they played a lot of plays in the first half. That first quarter felt like it took forever. I'm not who sure how long it lasted, but there was a time in there right there towards the end of the first half that we had to find, we had to get a gut check going and make sure that we hunkered down and we went and answered offensively. But we had to make a decision, are we fixing to cave or are we going to be an able to be the ones that take advantage of that weather out there that we had, because we felt like it was near perfect out there. And I thought we didn't take advantage of it on that drive, but they bounced back in the second half so I was proud of them.

Q. I'm sure they came into the game saying they have to take away your running game and you ran for 400 yards. What were the factors there?
DAVID BEATY: I think I said it before, I think a lot of it comes down to the offensive line gelling together. Coach Ricker has done a really nice job in a short period of time getting those guys gelled together. Because there's, bottom line is there's three brand new guys up front that have not -- and that means there's five guys that have not played completely together and that's so important being able to have an offensive line that plays together a lot. The communication system alone is so important up there. The calls that they make and the things, I mean it just sounds different coming out of other people's mouths and when they can play a few plays together, it starts helping them understand each other. So I think that's big. And then I do think we have very talented capable backs. And if we can keep those guys healthy and we can give them creases I think we got a chance to be okay in the run game. I think that Coach Meacham and the staff, the whole staff, all of them did a terrific job, game planning and they stuck to the plan. Which was good to see.

Q. How proud are you of Pooka through his first two career games?
DAVID BEATY: Very proud of him. I think the most, the thing I'm most proud about him is the maturity that I see in a young guy. Now I mean I'm going to be very careful with that because it can change as well. But he's a lot, he's a serious guy, very serious guy. We were talking on the bus ride up today and I asked him where did you get your football and aptitude at? And he talked about his dad made him study. When most kids were out playing, they were watching video and watching tape about where is his primary key and where is his secondary key. And that was something that we start hearing him talk about how he's looking and what he's looking at and for a young guy that's not, that's not usually normal. He plays with a lot of football aptitude.

Q. What is he looking at? Is he looking at not the guy who is about to tackle him, but the next guy?
DAVID BEATY: We have keys, obviously, in the run game for backs and everybody's a little bit different, but he's just -- I don't know if I want to tell you that (laughter.) Because some of it is a little bit different than maybe some of the things that you've heard before. It's more of an advanced back that can get the things that he gets. So I think one of the things that he does so well is he basically works on getting, stepping on the toes of the defender before he makes a cut. A lot of people make that mistake and give a defender time and space. He steps on their toes before he makes his break. So he makes them commit. And that last touchdown run he made the guy commit. And that was the difference in that run. He made him commit and he's got the ability to step on him and still move laterally. Not everybody can do that. Some of that is just raw talent.

Q. How did you know Miles Kendrick was ready to take off the floatees in the shallow end of the pool and go off the high dive?
DAVID BEATY: We knew that it was going to take us a little bit of time to get him ready from a procedural standpoint in a game. And it did. But I thought he really improved from last game to this game procedurally. He managed the clock well. One of my favorite plays for him today was the post that he overthrew. He didn't leave it short. He threw it with confidence and had our receiver not got held up just on the line it would have been a nice ball. It was 42 and a little bit outside the hash, which is where we're looking for. But he made a throw that only that guy could get to. And that's a lot of maturity. He did make one throw back across his body that I was not happy about and it almost got picked. I mean it almost got picked and we got to learn from that. We simply cannot put the ball in jeopardy. Those guys have done a pretty good job up until this point over three games. It will be a good teaching moment for us as we move forward to the next step.

Q. Do you still plan on starting Peyton next week or is that something you'll determine this week?
DAVID BEATY: The good news is we have got several of them that we can use and I'm not going to announce the starter right now just because I don't know that I want to give Baylor an advantage. I think that we can use all of them in any way, we just need to get a good look at the tape and see what it behooves to us use.

Q. What led you to keep Bender on the bench in the second half, because obviously him and Miles played in the first half?
DAVID BEATY: I think I just said a second ago that some of the things that they did structurally lent itself a little bit more to what we had game planned for with Miles. And because of that, it was just a matter of time as to when we were going to use those packages and see if they were creating some success for us. And he had a pretty good command of it from what we saw from the sidelines. So it really worked out that way. We were about to put Peyton back in there because we had a lot of time left in the fourth quarter and then that next drive on the defense it took a little while and we just felt like it was time to get, from an injury perspective, moving into the next phase, we felt like we had to, we felt like we had the game in control, we wanted to make sure that we got some other guys in the game and kept those guys healthy.

Q. How encouraging was it to be able to build a large lead in the fourth quarter to be able to take your starters out and give the other guys substantial playing time?
DAVID BEATY: Well I mean that's big. It's really big going into conference I think because now you got some other guys some touches, some Deron Thompsons, that we know over the last two games we know this kid's very capable too. We put him on scholarship this year and he deserves it. He came here and walked on after he left a scholarship at Colorado State and man he is just a terrific kid. So seeing him develop, getting to see Carter in can there, which Carter is just a hair's breath from being able to play for us too and he's done a terrific job, not a good, I mean a great job of preparing himself and he just has had the right mindset. He's a great example I think of what's right with the team right now. It's a selfless attitude and ready when his number's called. Then we played a bunch of O linemen, I think that was critical seeing Antione Frazier go in there and play pretty decent for us today -- I'll look at the tape before I say, but we didn't get to put him in there for a lot last week and he's a talented guy, we think that he just needs just some more reps and that was good. And then seeing all those DB's play seeing Jones play and seeing Hempstead play, getting all those young guys -- Dru Prox got in there on the linebacker spot, just seeing all -- Rickie getting to run around back there, getting to DeAnte Ford, I mean we got to see a lot of folks play that we can evaluate a little bit better so as we game plan we know what kind of depth we have in spots. So that's the biggest piece. A couple more.

Q. What's the mood in the locker room? How sweet is it to go in the conference having won two games. I bet everybody in that locker room believes you guys should be 3-0.
DAVID BEATY: They believe we get what we earn and we have earned what we have. And the thing that I really enjoy about that locker room is that the sentiment is one of joy, obviously, but they have a great perspective of what they want to do. They know that there's more out there for them. They're going to enjoy this because we demand it. It's hard to win college football games. Very difficult. I didn't see this coming against these guys because they are a very talent rich football team and I've said so many times how good of a Coach Chris Ash is. It just didn't work out for them today, but I'm telling you, they have got guys, there's no doubt and they're definitely going to bounce back. It was our day. Sometimes it becomes your day. But our guys are ready to move forward and before I even got in the locker room, the captains were already talking to them, which is good maturity that you want to see.

Q. Obviously the last week got a little bit lopsided, but you haven't had a game like this since Rhode Island in your second year. Just for you how personally fulfilling was it kind of going through all that?
DAVID BEATY: Well, I mean, for me, just for our guys, really, because we needed to see more guys play. And we haven't had that luxury yet. And we made a decision to play some depth over the last couple of games, it's paid off for us. We thought that they were good enough to play for us at that point. Now when we get into the Big-12 it's a whole different thing, but we won't have them prepared if they didn't play in these pre-season games pre-conference games. And this is a good opponent. This is not like, this is not one of those things where we thought we were fixing to have that opportunity. It just happened for us. That we were able to get it done. But those guys for the most part I thought people were ready. We'll look at the tape and see who wasn't and hopefully we'll get closer to getting those guys developed. We got to play some guys that new red shirt rule's going to help us with. We were able to get some dudes on the field tonight and get some carries. Ryan Malbrough carried the ball, he's a freshman dude, walk on guy out of the Louisiana that we think is going to be a talented guy. And not many people know about him, but he got some carries today and I didn't even know if he really knew what he was doing on a couple of them calls, but he made something happen. He's done a great job on the scout team. And those are the things that stick out to me. And I'll finish with this, we have left so much stuff out there that we can get so much better on. I mean I think that's the thing that we'll build off of is we is had 24 points off six turnovers, that's not good enough. We have had it the last two games, we just haven't capitalized when we get good field position from the defense. That will haunt you. The kicking game miscues, that will haunt you. And that showed up today. The good news is we were able to kind of shut it off. Which in the past I'm not sure we would have been able to do that. So maybe some maturity there we'll just are to see when they get here Monday. So.

Q. Talk about your fans. They were loud and enthusiastic in that first half.
DAVID BEATY: They were great. I thought the show of fans was terrific you I can't thank the Jayhawk nation enough. What a great day to have Todd Reesing inducted into the Ring of Honor and how about him giving his signature move there at the end. I got to see him yesterday, I know Coach Mangino was here hanging out with him and getting to be around him, just a great day for him. And I'm happy that he got to not only remember that for him, but that the day for us, it kind of left it in a good term, so he didn't have to think about the other side. So that was good and I'm just so happy for our fans, they deserve it more than any other set of fans in the country, they deserve better and we're working to give it to them.

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