Kansas offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki got a change of pace last week when Jason Bean was injured and Cole Ballard replaced him. Ballard ended up finishing the game and Kotelnicki talked about that along with Bean returning to practice on Wednesday.

The biggest question mark of the week coming into the Kansas State game is the availability of Bean, and Kotelnicki gave a brief update on his status Wednesday morning when asked who would be Ballard’s back up.

“Well, it depends… A couple scenarios… Jason's practicing today,” Kotelnicki said. “Mikey [Pauley] and Ben Easters. Those are the four quarterbacks that are available to play.

He kept it brief when discussing how much Bean has been doing.

“Took a bunch of reps, that's all I'll say. Took a lot of reps,” Kotelnicki said.

When Bean went down, there was not a lot of time for Kotelnicki to give any sort of pep talk to Ballard, but he was confident because of what he had seen in practice from him.

“There's really no time to panic,” Kotelnicki said. “If I'm doing my job and the rest of the staff, you can't panic. You got to move on. Right. What he's been able to do at practice and what he's been able to demonstrate makes it easy not to panic.”

Kotelnicki was also able to keep his entire playbook open, as the coaching staff has been raving about his ability to comprehend everything the offense is trying to do since fall camp.

“The way he handles himself and his decision making and his toughness and all those kind of things that you really appreciate about college football players, he embodies that,” Kotelnicki said.

He also has 10 other players to worry about when he is overseeing the offense, and he said that they have just as much of an impact on the success of the team as Ballard

“You have to execute the plan, and there's a lot of players around him that have to do their jobs in order to make him look good,” Kotelnicki said. “At times were doing that, sometimes weren't.”

It was not a secret that the Jayhawks struggled in the red zone against Texas Tech. The Jayhawks made three trips to red zone, but only came up with six points, which was frustrating for Kotelnicki.

"Those are critical situations that we've been able to pride ourselves on in the past to do really well in and didn't and inevitably cost us a game,” Kotelnicki said.

He also stated that having Ballard in the game did not sway his decision making on the last drive, as they always had a chance to fall back on the field goal that tied it.

“We're calling to score to win the game, but we're not going to be silly about it and have a chance to play for overtime there,” Kotelnicki said.

Even though they came up on the losing end because of the execution late, Kotelnicki was proud of the way the offense approached Sunday’s practiced.

“We moved on really well and that's good,” Kotelnicki said. “And so that shows some maturity from the players in the organization, but it also is a testament to them.”

Reed-Adams electrified the crowd as he pulled from the slot to the left side of the formation and used the running start to deliver one of the biggest blocks of the season. The play was one of the plays that Kotelnicki gave players the freedom to draw up over the summer.

“The details of it and stuff like that, we've ironed out to make it a little bit better for that game,” Kotelnicki said It's another way to exchange and extend gaps and use him as a battering ram, if you will, which he was.”

The inspiration for the play came from Trent Williams, a tackle from the 49ers, who did something similar in the 2022 divisional round against the Green Bay Packers.

“You can see that the 49ers do that with Trent Williams sometimes as well,” Kotelnicki said. “It's another way to exchange and extend gaps and use him as a battering ram, if you will, which he was.”