Asked at Big 12 Media Days to share his recruiting pitch, Kansas head football coach David Beaty called an audible on the question and then answered it.
“Well, there’s no pitch, there’s a relationship,” Beaty said. “There’s no cliche there. We’re going to get to know you. We’re going to make sure that you’re a Kansas-type guy. And then we’re going to show you everything that’s great about this great university. And we’re going to start with what it means to be a Jayhawk. We say it all the time: When you sign here and you spend any amount of time here, that bird goes straight through your shirt and right to your heart. And it happens. It happens all the time.”
It sounded like a recruiting pitch. Beaty explained why he does not consider it one.
“The thing for us,” he said, “we don’t pitch anything. We tell you the truth. Whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, you’re going to get the truth. We don’t promise things. There’s no, ‘You’re going to start.’ We don’t ever say that. You’re going to get what you earn. And there is going to be competition. You’re only going to be as good as your next, but we’re going to push you to be the best man you can possibly be and when you leave here, you’re going to be a better man, father, husband, productive member of society. And the byproduct of all of that is going to be championships for you on the field and off. So basically we talk a lot about what it means to be a great Jayhawk. So that’s where our relationship starts. And if you don’t want that, it’s no big deal. You just can’t come here.”