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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 23, 2018

David Beaty

Lawrence, Kansas

COACH BEATY: Lastly this weekend obviously is going to be our Jayhawk's for a Cure game. I think all of us have been directly or indirectly affected by that terrible disease. It's going to be a great weekend. We encourage all cancer fighters and survivors to join us on the hill Saturday at noon for Hawk Walk. We'd love to see you there, love to honor you there, excited about it. I'll give a shoutout to my sister who is a breast cancer survivor. We've lived through it too and she's my hero.

Okay. After watching video from this last week, obviously not the result we were looking for. Gotta give credit to Coach Kingsbury. They do a really nice job. They continue to do a good job. They'll continue to play well in this conference. There's no doubt they've got some really good players. They do a good job. And he deserves the credit for sure.

After watching the video, there are some guys, some very bright spots. Azur Kamara, production starting to come on in a big way for us. He had five tackles, a sack, had a forced turnover and forced fumble, which is great to see. We needed that production.

Hasan Defense, I talked about it last night, continues to be around the ball, settling into that new role really well. Done a nice job for us. Hopefully he continues to play like that. He had a fumble recovery and an interception in the game, and makes a lot of tackles.

I talked to him yesterday in front of the team. He's a guy that really has done a nice job with the move that we made with him.

Daylon Charlot showed up for us last week, made some nice plays. Very proud of him. He's a testament to just resilience and continuing to work. And Steven Sims, talk about him a bit more in a second, might have made the best catch I've seen him make in his career. And he's made a lot of them. Kwamie Lassiter, he continues to impress me, a guy that is a little bit more of a smooth runner so you don't realize how fast he is but a strong dude too for a little bitty guy. He comes from good stock.

So you know he was going to be a pretty good player. But, man, he's really been a big piece of the puzzle for us. We look for more out of him. Pooka, I don't know if I have the words for how well that guy's played for us. He had 19 total touches over 100 yards again. I think that's six straight games, if I'm not mistaken. Just phenomenal. Some of the things he did, couple of the runs he made, I haven't seen those by a young guy. He is a talented kid, great kid, gives our team energy every week. And, man, he just -- I mean, whether it's the person that opens the door every day or it's the guy that's helping us get water, he is the same to everyone, which is what you love to see about guys. Just a humble, selfless guy. Great job by his parents, for sure.

Khalil played really well. The dude's a good back. Great vision. He had 39 yards on eight carries, very efficient for us.

I thought those guys really stood out. Offensive line, I know we gave up four sacks. But I thought they did a really nice job in protection. Those dudes were facing some crazy blitz combinations and they did a really nice job.

I was proud of those guys. I thought Alex played really well at the center. Hakeem played really well. And we played a bunch of guys, which is good. We're starting to develop more depth there.

Some notes just to point out, Steven Sims tied the record, tied two of Kerry Meier's records for touchdown catches in a career. He's got 18. And for receiving yards. So he's number two all-time in both of those spots.

And that's a testament, because I know how good Kerry Meier was firsthand for sure.

Really happy for him. Happy for Joe Dineen, another guy, both these guys chose to come back. Didn't have to and they did, because of their love for KU.

Joe tied the record for TFLs held by Willie Pless who I've heard historians talk about being maybe one of the best players they've ever seen play here. So that's rare air for Joe to be in, and he certainly deserves it. But the thing is Daniel Wise is just two behind him. Great production by those two guys.

Three guys that really could have went to the NFL and I just believe they all would have been on rosters at this time, but they came back because they love this place. And they love the people here and they do nothing but give us great leadership and play as hard as they can.

Hasan Defense, he's in some rare air too. Third all time in the season with 125 return yards with five games left to play. He did that on three returns so far.

And I think Hakeeb [phonetic] is number one. Don't quote me, I think he had five in that season. But that's pretty good by Hasan. Hopefully he can continue to play and have that production for us.

Just a couple of things about this week, Coach Patterson, can't say enough about him. He's going to find a way now. He's one of them guys that, man, it just seems like things could be going crazy around him and he finds a way to settle it down. So we definitely know we've got to get ourselves ready to go this weekend.

There's a couple guys that aren't going to be playing for them. The only advantage we have is we know they're not playing. That's it. Other than that, he still has the type of coaching mentality and prowess that he has. So we have to prepare because he's got capable guys to play behind him.

Jalen Reagor is a guy that impresses me. The dude can fly. I recruited him. Know him well. He's got 38 catches. He's got four touchdowns. He's a really talented guy. We've got to do a good job on him.

I thought the Collins kid came in played well early. Oklahoma kind of solved it a little bit there towards the end. But that guy came in, I want to say, seven straight completions, don't quote me, but it was a bunch of them in a row for a guy that just stepped off the bench.

He's certainly capable and you can tell that he's got more than just an average amount of experience already coming into that role.

And then the thing that always sticks out to you about them is defensively. They play so well over there defensively. They're still second in total defense.

They lead the Big 12 in passing yards allowed, which is -- you don't really think that's a big deal until you realize that he's doing it a lot of times with four down people and he's not dropping eight like a lot of other guys are.

He's still very productive. He's a really good football coach. I like their Mike linebacker. I think he's good. Everybody knows about Olague. He's a real guy. The other guy on the other side, Collier, he is a real guy, really good players on the edge.

And I like Ty Summers. Just a production machine. I think he was a high school quarterback. Gary's found so many of those guys throughout his career. He continues to do that. So it's going to be a challenge, but our guys are certainly up for it and coming out of last week the things that we need to fix are very fixable.

I know that our procedure is much improved. I know our guys feel much more comfortable. There were very, very few busts and that's a huge improvement. And I know we will do nothing but improve from there. I'm excited to get them back on the field but we have a lot of work ahead of us over the next two days.

Excited about that opportunity. It's always been a good game plan against those guys and they have to come to our place. Excited to see everybody out there.

Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH BEATY: Well, they are tall guys. There's no doubt about that. It's a little bit different for Kliff. He doesn't always have those guys. You can tell there was a concerted effort I believe in them to go get some longer rangier guys. Stood next to No. 9. I didn't realize how big, he's a tall guy, I don't know how tall, 6'6" or something. No. 4 is a big, tall dude.

Those guys are long guys. They are not as fast as some of the guys they've had in the past. They have got some range now. They made some real plays. And we talked in here yesterday about the moment of truth.

And the moment of truth is really the key is what do you do at the moment of truth when there's a play to be made, that's where we have to be able to step up and do, be able to provide ourselves with more than the opposing team does. Steven Sims made a terrific play at the moment of truth. Daylon Charlot made a terrific play at the moment of truth. No. 9 made a great play at the moment of truth. And No. 4 made a great play at the moment of truth. We've got to win those 50/50 battles at the moment of truth. We'll put a lot of emphasis on that again this week. They made more plays than we did. I thought we got them to third down quite a few times and we let them get out of it and we can't do that.

Q. What do you see from this quarterback this week -- (inaudible)?
COACH BEATY: We'll continue to work just like we do every week. I want to see them compete in practice just like we always do. I want to see them continue to build off of the confidence they have right now and what we're doing. Them seeing the picture and the game plan of what we're looking at.

I think that we'll only improve in that area. The procedure, I think, is something that is giving them a lot of confidence. I want to see that improve. And I want to see our production better. It's no different for our quarterbacks than it is for our DBs to make the play at the moment of truth.

We have a chance to hit Steven Sims down the left sideline early in the game, and we're going to take the lead right there. And we just overthrow him.

We've got to be better than that. We've got to be better than that.

That doesn't just rest on the quarterback. It rests on me making sure that I give him the right fundamentals to get it done. Because at the end of the day that's my job to get it done.

So we'll work on fixing that again today and we'll make sure that we manage that. When we get open receivers in the Big 12, you can't afford to miss those guys. You've got to make those throws. We made some adjustments as the game went and they paid off. I will tell you Peyton settled down as we got through the game. And as we started talking about the things that we really wanted to do with the placement of the ball and putting the ball in specific position our guys made plays. You've got to put it in position to be able to make plays and know he trusts him and that will do nothing but build his confidence moving forward. The same thing with the rest of them.

Q. Was it the right decision was made, the right move to make, execution wasn't as sharp as it needed to be?
COACH BEATY: There was one play that -- there was one play where we had really a bust, where his eyes were on the wrong side and I think he knew it as soon as he looked over there. But for the rest of the way, exactly where he needed to be he was in the right spot. I thought his feet were pretty good. And it was the accuracy part of it.

That is when you think you've got to make a change, right, but we really felt confident that we could. And his production picked up. We got to the fourth quarter. It was, what, 34-9, something like that. You start getting into a one-dimensional game. I think we threw it 10 times in the fourth quarter. And they can pin their ears back, put pressure on you. But we still completed some balls there. Wouldn't want to normally throw the ball 10 times in the fourth quarter if you had your choices.

But that's where we were. And we've got to go execute that, right?

Q. (Inaudible) is it a blank slate? Running for Robinson, or how do you look at the quarterback spot for them?
COACH BEATY: We'll have to go by what we see. We understand the offense a little bit. There's a pretty big difference in offense to offense. But you've got to believe that schematically they'll be in the same things. It would be hard to create a new offense in a week. But they have a lot in their offense. So they'll attack you in certain ways. I don't think it will be any different than for us. Last week, one of the advantages that Tech had, I think it was brilliant by Kliff, he didn't announce who was playing. And from that standpoint we had to prepare for two very different guys. And that takes time. I don't care what you say. And the NCAA puts you on a time management plan. You cannot go over certain amounts of time.

So only got so many hours and minutes in the day and when you have to prepare for two, very different, it can make a challenge for you. Now, that's no excuse. We prepared more than enough for both of those guys.

But that's an advantage because you get to look at it. I don't know who the backup is really, to be honest with you, from there. We'll see who it is. But we can only go by what we've seen with him and what his skill set looks like to us.

Q. Daylon's role, will it get bigger this week?
COACH BEATY: I think it will. But we'll see. We'll see. I think it's all going to be earned. There's nothing different. And the thing is about Daylon is I take my hat off to him. He had a lot of things that he had to get better at. And he's worked diligently to get there.

When he got his opportunity, what do you do with it? And he got 42 plays, I think, the other day. I know it was over 40 for sure. And he made the most of the opportunity when the ball got close to him. It was a nice catch down the left side line. He ran physical. And he got the ball. Most of his yards came on that one play. But I've got to believe that's going to catapult him moving forward and I know our guys have confidence in him.

Q. (Inaudible). Handling himself, dealt injuries (indiscernible)?
COACH BEATY: He's an old guy. He's an older guy. He's mature. He's an older more, mature guy and watching him battle through that injury is something that you would expect like a Joe Dineen, how he would handle it. And he just kept his mouth quiet. He didn't say much. He just continued to work, got himself well. And it's when you're dealing with certain types of injuries, you know when you're ready and when you're ready to go.

So we just had to make sure that he felt good enough to do it. When you're dealing with backs, you're dealing with certain things that take a while it has to do with comfort level. Once he got comfortable he stepped up.

I'll tell you what, I thought he blocked really, really well the other day. I don't know that -- that kind of gets left out in kind of in the air. He blocked his rear end off. I thought he did nice things. He's continuing to get better. I would suspect if he continues to play well he's certainly got the body and the tools to be able to maybe work on them at the next level. Good player.

Q. Mike Lee had nine tackles despite playing only one half. The tenacity with which he played, was that just kind of making up for lost time for not having played against West Virginia?
COACH BEATY: I do think that he had a little bit fresher legs, which is just a byproduct of being able to rest him a little bit. But he was coming downhill with a little bit more punch to him than in recent weeks. Back to back, one of them he caused the fumble. The next one hits a guy right in the hip. And he was filling the alley really well. I think a lot had to do with him having fresh legs.

And sometimes the absence makes the heart grow fonder. When you're not getting to play, it's tough. The good thing is he was ejected but he was eligible to get started for us with this game because it started in the first half so we don't lose any more time with him.

Q. You talked last week about simplifying everything, getting better and you guys do the basic stuff. Did you feel before last weekend you guys maybe were overcomplicating things too much on offense?
COACH BEATY: I tell you, I'm just going to go from this week moving forward. I think where I would comment on that situation is just that I think what we're doing is complementing exactly what we've done over time and we're just building off of that base. And I think that's what made him feel a little bit more comfortable with it. I'm not going to speak on anything other than that going backwards, because it wouldn't be fair, just wouldn't be fair.

Q. I know you can't talk specific players, but your 2019 recruiting?
COACH BEATY: We can't talk specifics. Very pointed and direct about who and what our needs are. We don't have a whole lot to give, believe it or not. So it's one of those deals where knowing exactly what you need and what your needs are, are very important. And the recruiting game has changed in my mind a lot more from perception to what do you have to do to get them, and where and when do you pull triggers. There's guys running all over the fields in places we're playing and in the SEC of guys that were committed to us.

I mean, we've got to learn from that. So being very smart about how we do things and making sure that we're just not the guys that just put people on radars.

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