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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 25, 2018

David Beaty

Lawrence, Kansas

DAVID BEATY: Coming off that game last week, obviously there was a lot to learn from in that video. There's a lot of things that you pick up when you watch the tape that are going to be good tools as you move forward. You don't want to ever have to learn lessons, but the reality of it is is that you have to, and from our standpoint, I know that we'll benefit from it because we're just in that point in our maturation process as a team that you're going to have to learn some lessons from time to time, and that's all of us. It's not just our players, it's all of us as a program as we continue to grow together.

I was really pleased with the way our guys bounced back this week. They took it personal. I know they're anxious to get to the practice field today. They're excited about homecoming and being able to put on for their fans, and a lot of the former players are going to be here. I talked about it a little bit last night. We get to see some of our former guys come back with their families, and that's really cool to be able to see the little ones, and seeing them as fathers. That's a very rewarding experience to see that happen. So we're going to have a bunch of those folks back here, and there will be just a lot of good fun things going around, and it should be a good atmosphere Saturday, and I think the weather is going to hold off for us, and it should be great. Hopefully we can pack that place and make that a huge advantage for us. Like I said, it was a big advantage for Baylor last week, so I know we can do twice that here, so I'm looking forward to all the Jayhawks coming out.

Just a couple other things. I talked a little bit last night about -- I was asked about our quarterback, Miles Kendrick, and right now he's still day-to-day, so that's all I'm going to say about him. He's progressing nicely, though, so hopefully we can get him back as soon as we possibly can.

Let's go with some questions.

Q. A lot of times cornerbacks don't necessarily make the best tacklers, but it seems like Corione Harris has the propensity to want to seek out contact. Is that what you've seen him do, and can you talk about that?
DAVID BEATY: You know, usually they're one or the other, right? They either will tackle you or they just won't tackle you, and I think you hit it on the head there. But he's a guy that certainly does not shy away from contact, which is good. He's still got a lot to learn from controlling his body and understanding leverage and things like that, but to this point, he's growing, and he's doing some good things, and he's not afraid to stick his head in there. He's got a lot of confidence, and I like the type of confidence he has. It's not a false confidence, not a cockiness, it's a confidence that he prepares well.

Q. At wide receiver, Jalen McCleskey, Mike Gundy announced yesterday that he is going to redshirt him the rest of the year so he could transfer and play immediately because of the new rule, which is kind of maybe an unintended consequence. But he said he thinks it's going to be happening across the country, he just doesn't think that all the coaches will be as honest about it as he is. He just wanted to announce it and get it out of the way. Can you say that you have any players that have told you they're going to redshirt with the intent to transfer?
DAVID BEATY: We have not. We have not had anybody come to us in that regard. But I do think that what you said is probably accurate. It may be an unintended consequence.

Sometimes it's the good, bad and the ugly of some things that come out that you have to deal with, and if it happens around our place, we'll certainly have to deal with it. But hopefully our guys are really committed to each other, and we really do have a tight family here, so I look forward to us being able to move forward.

Our guys are -- they're energized and ready to go this week. They felt like they left one out there this last week, and that's good to see. I mean, and we learned a lot from the video, and I'm encouraged by that because the video did tell us a lot, and if we can continue to attack the weeks that way, we'll be in pretty good shape.

Q. Can you talk about how Hasan played at safety? That was his first game playing that --
DAVID BEATY: He did some good things. It was a very physical game for him, playing against No. 5, who's really a running back, and he's been moving to wide out. He's a physical guy, and I thought Hasan went toe-to-toe with him the whole game. It was unfortunate we got that holding call against him late in the game, and that's really kind of a byproduct of just managing your emotions, right, as you go. That was a 3rd down and I think 8, maybe more, I can't remember exactly, but it was a 3rd down, and they didn't complete it, and if we'd have been able to get off the field right there, we had a lot of time left, and that drive continued down to, I believe we got the ball back with 5:18 or so left, and we would have got it back with quite a bit more time, five or six more minutes. You never know which play is going to be the difference.

But he did some really nice things. I thought he tackled really well. He was very physical. We had him doing some different things than maybe a conventional safety would be, and I thought he handled it for the most part, particularly a guy that hasn't been on the field here the last couple weeks, so it was good to see him step back in there and do some good things. I think he'll learn and he'll only get better from there.

Q. What has Jeremiah Booker's leadership meant for the team and the community, how big an asset is that for you?
DAVID BEATY: I think the best way for me to describe Booker is just to use a couple of words that stick out to me: Consistency, team guy, work ethic. I mean, he's just a guy that he displays it in every way, every day. He's very well-rounded. His interaction with the community is very important to him, and I think all that comes from his family. If you know his mom and dad, just extraordinary people, extraordinary people. And he comes from terrific stock, and I know this: I think if you polled our team, everybody that's ever gotten to be around him would say that he has in some way made them better in some way. Guys want to aspire to do better in all areas of their life as a result of people that can help you raise your level, and he's kind of one of them guys.

Q. Do you have an update on Ricky Thomas at all?
DAVID BEATY: Not yet. He's back at practice. Hopefully we can get him full speed. We'll see how that goes.

Q. You guys had a couple clean weeks but last week a lot of time-outs taken. Can you speak to what some of the issues were?
DAVID BEATY: Yeah, you know, across the country, you might notice a little bit, they have sped up the clock a little bit, trying to minimize the time that these guys are on the field, which I think is a good thing. It's just a matter of adjusting to it. But last week there were some things that we have to clean up as a staff. We had a couple issues -- we're playing a lot of guys on the defensive line, and when you do that, you're rolling people in and out, if you're not ultra, ultra organized, and particularly in situations, particularly if they're going for it on 4th or they're not, you've got to make sure you've got the right people in, and that reared its head in the fourth quarter last week, and that was unfortunate.

But I can assure you we have a plan to get that fixed. That won't happen again. But we have to do a better job of managing it, obviously, and I thought we really did a good job of progressing from the first game offensively and managing that.

Really it's been all over the country. I've watched people take time-out after time-out after time-out because it's really sped up a lot. They used to allow you to get out there. They're blowing the whistle and here we go. So there's some of it that's that, and then the other part of it is just great communication on the sidelines, particularly when you're in a different environment. There's no excuse. You've got to get that taken care of, and we just didn't handle it. Coach Bowen had to take two time-outs the other day, and he had to take them because if we had not, we would have had to stay on the field, right, and that's a combination of all of us that are involved in that, players included.

There's a shared responsibility there, and we've got to get it managed better.

Q. Just to clarify, did you think one of them might have been reviewable?
DAVID BEATY: I did. I certainly did. I thought it was a targeting. I had a pretty good view of it down there, and I certainly -- I certainly defer to our officials, and they have a really good view of it up there. It was probably a hard one to call, I would imagine, but from where I was sitting, I thought I saw the guy drop his head and make contact with Stephon, I believe, right there on the side of the helmet. So we felt like we had a good case there. They were about to -- we were in a situation where we didn't want them to snap that ball too quick. We wanted them to get a look at it because we were down three scores at that point, and we really needed to extend that drive. That was a big, big deal for us, so we felt like that was well used there. Unfortunately it didn't go our way.

Q. Is there anything with Carter Stanley that we don't see, maybe not trusting the offense or maybe calling too many audibles or whatever that made him the third quarterback?
DAVID BEATY: I will say this: The race between those guys was actually really close, and the reason it was really close between all of them was that they really studied a lot. They did a nice job. I attribute the reason that we've done a better job taking care of the ball at that position is because they have studied a bunch. They understand defenses now. They're not putting the ball in jeopardy as much. And that's really, really critical.

I mean, that kept us in the game the other day. Not turning the ball over kept us in the game, fewest penalties kept us in the game. Unfortunately we had a couple that hurt us, but being able to win some of the areas of the hidden yardage kept us in the game. We had a chance in that game until the very end, but from talking about him, it was very, very close, and we've always felt good about him.

The thing that I've really enjoyed watching about Carter is from the day that we've named the starter, he has taken literally an air rep every time that ball gets snapped, so he is preparing like a pro, and because of that, when he stepped in, you didn't see a guy that was unfamiliar. I mean, he stepped in and he did the job, which was good.

Q. Would you like to see Kalil get more carries going forward?
DAVID BEATY: I would like to see all of them get more carries. The problem is when you don't put a lot of 1st downs together, you don't get as many plays. We played 55 plays on offense, which is by far our lowest output. That is obviously -- it's credited to lack of getting 1st downs. We have got to string 1st downs together to be able to give people touches. It's not as easy as just saying, well, we should have gave it to Kalil three times this series. You've got to string plays together to be able to get more touches for everyone, right.

That's where the problem lies is we've got to be better on 1st downs so we can be better on 3rd down and be able to get 1st downs and be able to get a new set of downs because now you get a new set for guys to touch the football. That's where the issue comes in. Being able to get them all the ball distributed correctly, all the playmakers we have, we've got to get more plays, we just didn't have enough plays the other day, and we paid the price. I mean, defensively we played 68 plays. That would have been close to our lowest output last year.

So some of the things that we've done have helped us. We truly believe that, but we've got to be more productive offensively. We've got to go get the ball in the end zone, and we've got to continue to work, and we've got to create a way to get our playmakers the ball in place a little bit more than we did.

Q. There were a couple of plays really late in the game; can you get kind of an accurate assessment about how he would handle a game situation? The game was essentially over at that point when he was in there.
DAVID BEATY: You know, I think it just depends on what the situation is, but I think I understand what your question is if you're sitting there thinking that you're down three scores and it's going to be difficult. It might be difficult to get a really accurate assessment, but you can still figure out if he is executing correctly. Is his footwork good, is he making good decisions, is he making the right reads. So yes, we can identify that from there.

In that particular situation the other night, I think I said it after the game, he brings a little bit of a different skill set with his feet, and we felt like we were going to see a lot of pass rush there in that late part, so we were able to utilize his skill set a little bit better because he does move pretty well.

Q. Can you give a little scout on Oklahoma State, what you saw?
DAVID BEATY: Yeah, big, fast, strong -- big, fast, but strong, athletic, a very signature Mike Gundy team. I mean, he's done a terrific job of matching talent there, really good-looking defense. Their defensive line is a really good-looking bunch, very active. The Bundage kid is as good-looking a kid as I've seen playing that safety there. He looks like an NFL guy to me. He's done a good job of collecting long corners. They've done that over the last few years. They make it tough on you because their corners are really long, and they run really well. Linebackers play really well. They've got some experience to draw from.

They've got the league's best punter last year is back. He was injured, so he's a big weapon for them. You can tell a difference when he got back in there.

And Justice Hill, I think Justice is as dynamic as there is in our league. He's a very talented guy. They've got two more backs over there that are really good. They've got a young guy that I think is really talented. They've always had some really good tight ends that you'd better have a plan for because they're going to catch four or five passes in the game, and it's going to be 50 or 60 hidden yards that you didn't account for.

So they do a nice job there. They're really loaded up front. They've got big people up front, and then Cornelius I think does a terrific job of basically running the offense. He looks just like the guys before him. I'm not saying that he is a speedster, but the guy knows how to move. He can create a little bit on his own when he needs to. He certainly knows where to go with the ball, which limits the amount of time they've got to protect for him, and that's one of the biggest differences in that game the other night for them is just watching the kid from Tech, he knew exactly where to go with the ball. I mean, I'm pretty sure they got every pass off in less than 2.5 seconds, and when you do that, it makes it hard to get a pass rush. They took advantage of some things in that game the other day, and I think Oklahoma State is certainly capable of that.

I know they're going to be coming in here angry, but we're angry, too. We both have something to atone for, and we're going to see who can get their team ready the best, and that challenge is on me and on our staff.

Q. Last week Peyton talked about reading the balls better. What do you think of the way he did that Saturday?
DAVID BEATY: You know, he has actually been pretty good with his eyes. There's been just a few times where he -- his reads from that standpoint have been incorrect. So he's really improved a bunch. I think he understands what we're doing. That's not the issue. It's usually -- it's somebody that doesn't touch the ball that becomes an issue, whether you don't have your knees bent at the point of attack. If we've got outside screen called, your departure angle might be a little bit steep as opposed to flatter. And those are where those issues have come to pass.

We've got to make sure that we get those things dialed in a little bit better. We missed a couple of throws the other day that I know he wishes he had back, but he also made a couple of really nice throws there for us in the game, as well. That touchdown was a really nicely thrown ball.

He's developing. He's continuing to play well, and he's an unselfish guy. The guy is a passer, man. He can throw the ball. He's doing what we need to do here to be productive.

For that, I'm thankful and grateful to him because he does it without any issues. He's just a team guy.

Q. In general is Stevens not getting open as much this year as in past years, and if so, why?
DAVID BEATY: The answer is not -- it's not that he's not getting open. He's getting open at times. There's times when they're rolling coverage to him because they know he's a dynamic guy. So we have to be really, really smart about when we do get him in those single coverage situations, and we've got to take advantage of it, right. We have to take advantage of it because he's one of the better players that we have out there.

We've got guys in other places that can do it, but we've got to take advantage of it.

That particular throw, they were in a single high look. We felt like we had the inside fade to Booker. I think if he puts the ball on his outside shoulder we're in pretty good shape. But we did have some space to the field. It's one of those deals, you go back and look at the tape, you know, it might have been good to go to this side. But I'm not going to challenge him when he feels good about it, and he thinks he has enough space, he's been pretty good at putting it there. But we do have to take advantage of getting him in those one-on-ones and making sure we take advantage of that because that's the best odds you're going to get in football is one-on-one, and that's the best thing you can ask for is when you've got one of your best players in that space. Not just him but a few more of them, as well, so we've got to do a little bit better job of putting them in those positions. Once again, 1st downs will help that, get more calls.

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