Beaty says offense will have Meacham's personality
Fall camp in 2017 will be different for David Beaty than last year’s. The biggest change for the Jayhawks third-year head coach is turning the offense over to Doug Meacham.
Beaty was able to lure Meacham from TCU in the off-season to run the offense. Last year Beaty was the offensive coordinator and the move will open up more time for him to oversee all facets of the program.
“One of the positives about bringing Meacham here is the fact it allows me to do more of the head coaching stuff than having to do both,” Beaty said. “You just have a limited number of hours.”
There are over 35 head coaches in division one football calling their own plays. What Beaty did last season wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for the latest trend with head coaches.
“It is being done throughout the country at a high level,” Beaty said of head coaches calling plays. “Ideally if you have a guy that knows what you want to do and he knows it as well as he knows it then that is ideal. And he just happens to be one of the best in the country at what he does. It is a big time bonus for us.
“My schedule will change a little bit because I’m not going to hover over him. I don’t have to. Doug Meacham has done it. I’m not going to sit here and proclaim that I know more and can do it better than Doug. Offensively his record and the things he has done speaks for itself.”
Beaty took over the offense last year and tweaked some of the core philosophies. For the most part much of it was the same. With Meacham carrying the play sheet the basic scheme of the offense will be the same but the former TCU offensive coordinator will put his stamp on certain things.
“The offense itself and the bare structure of it is the same,” Beaty said. “There is the same terminology and the same concepts. The thing that is different is his personality, how he utilizes match-ups and how he utilizes different skill sets.”
[Related: Schadler rebounds from bad injury]
One of the moves Meacham made was moving Ryan Schadler from running back to wide receiver. Schadler, one of the fastest players on the team, broke in as a freshman leading the team in kickoff return yardage. He missed all of last season with an injury.
“Look at what he has done with Ryan Schadler moving to receiver,” Beaty said. “I’m not sure I thought he could have done that. It turns out he can catch the ball really well and run really fast. Just watching him utilize our tools that we possess has been fun to watch. I can see why he has been so productive.”