Midway through last season, his first at Kansas, offensive coordinator Doug Meacham confessed that everything he tried that had worked everywhere else he was employed was not working at Kansas.
It was a stunning admission, a 180-degree turn from coach speak designed to say nothing. It said everything, which might even factor in why Meacham doesn’t do interviews once a week, as was the case last season. He and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen, and the rest of the assistants for that matter, were last available to the media before games started.
I imagine Meacham is relieved at the new policy. He might have even lobbied for it, not because he has anything against reporters, rather because he likes to tell the truth and the truth is he never has worked with such ineffective blocking, which is where it all starts for any offensive coordinator’s plans.
In last season’s TCU debacle, the second consecutive shutout, this one yielding just 21 yards in total offense, Meacham looked on the sideline as if every X and O had been drained from his brain, frozen by the sight of a level of incompetence he never had witnessed.
And he coaches just one side of the ball. No need to make him responsible for both sides.
Meacham came to Kansas after TCU head coach Gary Patterson reacted to interest from other programs in co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie by making him the chief architect of the offense, which would relegate Meacham to a secondary role.
Head coach David Beaty, well connected in coaching gossip in Texas, grabbed Meacham before anyone else and surrendered OC duties, which he had taken onto his plate during a 2-10 season in 2016.
Meacham is coaching from the press box this season, a new perspective for him. So is a run-oriented offense.
An offensive lineman blocking for Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas at Oklahoma State, Meacham is a smart man, but did he smart decision to coming to KU?
