According to Kansas football coach David Beaty, he mistakenly described some of the circumstances surrounding his team’s final offensive play of an overtime home loss to Nicholls State while appearing on his weekly radio show, “Hawk Talk,” Monday night.
Beaty brought up the blunder during his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon, a day after he said the Colonels’ defense was in cover-zero, and if the KU offensive line could have picked up the twist ran by Nicholls defensive lineman Sully Laiche, then quarterback Miles Kendrick could have run for a touchdown because there was “nobody left” in the secondary to beat Kendrick to the goal line.
“I know you guys think I’m perfect, but I’m not,” Beaty said, while bringing up his mistake. “That’s a joke. I don’t know if you got that or not. But I kind of messed that deal up pretty good.”
He also misidentified Evan Veron, who made two sacks and 2.0 tackles for loss in Nicholls’ road win, as the player who delivered the sack in overtime, on the 3rd and 6 play.
“He had a sack on the second-to-the-last play, I think, of the first half. I had (Veron) on the brain, and it was actually 55 (Laiche) that made the sack. And they were in actually cover-one, which is man,” Beaty clarified. “They weren’t in cover-zero. So, yeah, I’ve proved I’m not perfect, which I’m sure you all didn’t know that up until now.”
KU’s coach said the sequences looked “almost identical” on video, leading to his gaffe. Beaty also stated he figured out he misspoke shortly after the show ended.
“So I’ve watched a few thousand plays, but that’s no excuse,” Beaty added.
Laiche tackled Kendrick for a 3-yard loss on the play, forcing KU to settle for a 41-yard Gabriel Rui field goal.
The Jayhawks (0-1) led briefly, 23-20, before Nicholls won the game on a 4-yard touchdown run by quarterback Chase Fourcade.
