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kansan.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Volume 128 Issue 14
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COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY Third time's not the charm for Weis
Now in year three, Weis hasn't been able to groom a successful quarterback. Not even an average one.
He was the offensive coordinator for a New England Patriots team that won three Super Bowls. In the same role for the Kansas City Chiefs, he resurrected a blond offense and helped lead the team to the playoffs in his only year with the team.
But during his tenure at Kansas, Weis has proven he's incapable of leading an offense that is able to compete in the Big 12. Despite his track record of offensive success, Weis has not been able to recruit and develop players at the most important position on the field.
Kansas coach Charlie Weis is supposed to be an offensive mastermind. Maybe he is.
In 2012, senior quarterback Dayne Crist was replaced midway through the season. The next year, junior Jake Heaps couldn't finish the year. Both transfer quarterbacks, each came to Kansas with impressive credentials but could never get anything to click.
Weis' hot seat is getting hotter by the week, and if the quarterback play doesn't improve, it's not going to cool down anytime soon.
Behind Cozart, junior Michael Cummings lacks the accuracy needed for the position, while third-stringer T.J. Millweard hasn't played in a college football game. The future doesn't look bright.
The new spread offense also doesn't appear to be helping. Three weeks into the college football season, the Jayhawks rank last in the conference in points and passing yards, and rank eighth in total yards.
Edited by Ben Carroll
it's too early to deem Cozart a failure, but currently, fans have no basis for hope beyond Weis' confidence in him during fall camp. It's also important to note that Weis also had confidence in Crist and Heaps heading into their seasons.
Crist finished the year with the worst passing efficiency among 116 qualifying Division I-A quarterbacks. Heaps ranked 128 out of 130. Each quarterback had more interceptions than touchdowns.
During these two seasons, the Kansas offense ranked last in points (16.8 per game), total yards (327 per game) and passing yards (145 per game).
This year, he is counting on sophomore Montell Cozart to break the horrible streak of underperforming quarterbacks.
Cozart is ranked 114th in passing efficiency out of 124 quarterbacks this season.
Based off two games of evidence, it doesn't look promising. Against two mediocre defenses, Cozart has gone 23-for-51 with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Anyone who watched the Duke game saw someone who looked timid and overthrew wide receivers all a game long.
RFN IIPOWITZ/KANSAN
The Jayhawks celebrate a goal Friday, Sept. 12, against Cal State Northridge. After the weekend, Kansas improved its overall record to 8-0.
Sophomore defender Morgan Williams crosses the ball into the middle of the field last Friday against Cal State Northridge. The Jayhawks defeat the Matadors 2-0.
BEN LIPOWITZ/KANSAI
BEN CARROLL
@BCarroll91
The Kansas soccer season is still young, but after the first eight games the Jayhawks are off to an 8-0 start—the best start in program history—and have already won more games than they did all of last year.
The Jayhawks have a brandnew 2,000-seat venue at RockChalk Park, nine new freshmen and the team introduced a new offense that has been nothing but spectacular in the first part of the season.
The success so far can be attributed to strong outings on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.
On the defensive side, the Jayhawks have been nearly perfect. Senior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Stroud is the catalyst to the defense that has only given up four goals to opposing teams and no more than one a game. Even though she missed one game due to a suspension, Stroud leads the Big 12 with a .893 save percentage.
that comes her way.
Redshirt sophomore defender Kaley Smith has seen every minute of every game and defends her player better than anyone, eliminating every opposing scoring opportunity
Kansas has recorded four shutouts and has yet to fall behind any team it has faced, which has seemed to jump-start the offense. In fact, the Jayhawks have played 732 minutes in the lead and only need seven more to beat the 2004 team's program record of 738 minutes of playing with the lead.
"We have a lot of fight," sophomore defender Morgan Williams said. "As a team, we have better mentality helping us to get goals that we couldn't last year, harder goals."
Junior midfielder Liana Salazar from Bogotá, Columbia, leads the offense. She has six goals and 13 points, which leads the Big 12 Conference.
Kansas has a +15 goal differential, the squad's highest mark after eight games. The Crimson and Blue have scored 19 goals so far, the highest total the team has seen to start a season in program history. The team seems to be spreading the field much better than previous years, as seven players have scored goals and nine have added at least one assist.
Junior forward Ashley Williams said the offensive balance is a crucial improvement from last year's team.
"It's a lot of help, we don't have so much pressure to worry about scoring because someone is going to get it done," Williams said. "Our freshmen came in really prepared to step up, and they have. It's really nice to have a collective group of girls scoring instead of just a couple."
The last time the Jayhawks began a season this well was back in 2004 by the eventual Big 12 champion and NCAA
tournament team. The team is also ranked No. 20 in the latest coaches' poll, its highest rank in the poll since 2009.
Coach Mark Francis said the team has played very well, but admitted there is always room for improvement.
"We've done well," Francis said. "We battled through and fought through. We have to be more consistent."
Francis added that the resilience of the team is a "core value" and its aggressiveness is going to get them up and
over those tough conference opponents like No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 22 West Virginia.
"This group, mentality-wise, they thrive on those kind of situations," Francis said. "We're going to win more games because of the fight and the hustle factor. Those things are the things that I'm the happiest about right now because I think if we can maintain those things it will take us a long way."
Edited by Alex Lamb
Charlie Weis discusses weekend loss
DAN HARMSEN
@UDK Dan
This Saturday, Kansas football will try to do what the Kansas basketball team does so well: rebound — only in a different sense of the word. Instead of the basketball team grabbing rebounds, the football program will try to regroup and respond following its 41-3 loss to Duke with a victory, as the 2-1 Central Michigan Chippewas come to Lawrence.
Kansas coach Charlie Weis watches from the sideline as his team plays against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 6.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Coach Charlie Weis talked about both the good and bad takeaways from the Duke defeat during his weekly Big 12 teleconference.
"We ran the football for a couple hundred yards," Weis said. "We didn't throw it effectively and we turned it over twice. When you lose the turnover ratio you are going to lose most games unless your talent level is far superior to everyone else. Our margin of error is very small. We didn't play well in the fourth quarter last game and we got off to a
slow start, settled down for a few quarters and gave up big plays to wrap up the game."
The 41 points surrendered by the defense was not an entirely accurate portrayal of the unit's performance over the weekend, according to Weis.
"Defensively, after the first quarter, in the second and third quarters we settled in." Weis said. "Take the big plays as a teaching tool and know that your turnover ratio was -2. We have to limit our turnovers and watch the big play. The pass coverage ended up being pretty adequate."
Much needs to be improved on after the loss, but Weis says that playing Duke in the non-conference portion of the season may give Kansas a leg-up on its Big 12 foes because Duke has a playing style similar to what Kansas will see during the conference schedule.
"Offensively, Duke is very similar to a lot of the teams we play against," Weis said. "Three wide receivers out there that are all good that try
to get involved in the mix and they have downhill running. Foundationally, a lot of the things they do we see in the Big 12."
Even though times seem to be tough following a blow-out loss to a team Kansas thought it could compete with, the Jayhawks wasted little time getting back to work following the road trip to Durham, N.C.
"We started working on the plane on the way back," Weis said. "When you lose a game you had high hopes for, we didn't wait until the plane landed. Yesterday we treated it a little bit differently; normally we don't get going on the next opponent until Tuesday, but we got going on (Central Michigan) because psychologically if you let the guys leave sulking for the next 48 hours, then you really lost 48 hours."
Weis believes that heading into next week and in the weeks to come, the area that can be most improved is in the passing game, starting with sophomore quarterback
"Offensively, obviously the inefficiency in the passing game was our number one concern and that will be what we prioritize this week," Weis said. "It was not a good day at the office. Yesterday, I had one early meeting and that (Cozart) was who it was with."
Montell Cozart.
Weis said that is the nature of the game of football. The quarterback is put under a microscope following losses.
"When you win, the quarterback gets all the credit, and when you lose, the quarterback gets all the blame," Weis said. "("Cozart") and I are tied at the hip."
But Weis has faith that Cozart will rebound after his bumpy performance.
"I feel he'll bounce back," Weis said. "He's not one you can wait on. You have to address that one right away."
Edited by Miranda Davis
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