Beaty: Kansas recruits as ‘a family’

By Matt Tait     Feb 23, 2016

Nick Krug
Kansas head coach David Beaty pulls off his headset after an offensive series during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at Memorial Stadium.

Kansas University football coach David Beaty would rather not lose half of his assistant coaches during just his second year in charge of the Jayhawks.

But with four coaches already out the door and Beaty sweating the possible departure of a fifth — defensive-line coach Calvin Thibodeaux interviewed Monday at Oklahoma — there is one area of his program that Beaty is not worried about being negatively impacted by the heavy turnover on his staff: recruiting.

A big reason Beaty remains comfortable about his ability to bring quality players to Lawrence is the approach he has to signing future talent.

“We recruit every one of those kids as a staff, as a family,” Beaty said. “We don’t recruit individually.”

As is the case with most college programs, Beaty’s nine full-time assistants are responsible for recruiting different regions of the country, with the greatest emphasis on Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and areas nearby.

The assignments generally are handed out based on past success in a certain area, strong ties to a particular school or city and familiarity with the area and its football philosophy and history.

A coach might be the one to identify initially a player whom KU wants to target, but once he does, Beaty and several other assistants get in on the act of inspiring the young man to commit to Kansas.

“(Co-defensive coordinator) Kenny Perry didn’t sign four guys. We signed 15 guys,” Beaty said. “When we hired ’em, we talked to ’em about that. It’s not a premium on how many guys you sign or who signed who. We are about signing the right guys and we all do it together.”

On most websites that track recruiting, such as Rivals.com or 247sports.com, the name of the lead recruiter from each program pursuing the athlete often is attached to a prospect’s bio.

And that has proven to be true for KU, as well.

“Somebody’s name may go on it because he came from that (coach’s recruiting territory),” Beaty said. “But that’s not how it works. We recruit ’em together. So, from that standpoint, I really don’t see things changing.”

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.