And although he wound up going for it instead of kicking on a couple of occasions late in a 30-20 home loss to Texas Tech — “we had to,” Beaty said — the decision to punt instead of trying to keep drives alive early in the game again played a factor.

Asked again about his fourth-down philosophy after the loss, Beaty continued to answer like a coach playing with a full deck and not a heavy underdog desperate to gamble.

“You know, there’s a lot of factors that go into when and why you go for it on fourth down,” Beaty said.

“Not the least of which is how our defense is playing,” he continued. “What type of momentum do they have, have they already gotten a little bit of confidence moving forward, have they done some things to stop them? We had one, we were fourth-and-four down by the goal line, but we were 0 of 7 in our last three games on fourth down and short. So going into that situation you gotta be smart about when you do it, how you do it, what play do you have and what kind of room do you have to be able to spread the ball out and things like that.”

KU finished 1-of-3 on fourth-down conversions Saturday.

— See what people were saying about the game during KUsports.com’s live blog.

More news and notes from Kansas vs. Texas Tech

• Different feel: Jayhawks competitive in loss to Texas Tech
• Column: Risks and rewards come with true freshman QB Ryan Willis
• Ben Heeney returns to support Jayhawks
• Notebook: Jayhawks rediscover ground game
• Fourth down debate continues for KU
• Matthew Wyman now punting, too
• Kingsbury: Red Raiders ‘choked’ on offense vs. Kansas
• Fish Smithson leads KU defense with two takeaways
• Game balls and gassers