Former Kansas linebacker Ben Heeney didn’t spend much time around David Beaty. Just here and there for a few months, after wrapping up his college career, in fact.
But Heeney was around for all of the Charlie Weis era — a two seasons and change stretch that saw the Jayhawks go 6-22 under Weis’ watch.
And it was with that firsthand knowledge of the program’s inner workings that Heeney took to Twitter on Tuesday to voice his opinion of the job Beaty has done.
KU’s fourth-year head coach, of course, was informed Sunday by athletic director Jeff Long he won’t be retained for the 2019 season.
Even though Beaty is 6-39 coaching the Jayhawks, Heeney tweeted that he doesn’t think “there’s a coach out there that could have been thrown into that — storm and done a better job,” adding he has “nothing but respect and admiration” for Beaty.
In other posts, Heeney went on to say only coaches and players who were in the program when Weis was in charge truly understand how the former KU coach, fired four games into the 2014 season, left the football program “in shambles.”
According to Heeney, Beaty was starting from “ground zero,” when he took the job in December of 2014.
https://twitter.com/henbeeney/status/1059875863653691393
https://twitter.com/henbeeney/status/1059876763818512384
https://twitter.com/henbeeney/status/1059877111014526977
https://twitter.com/henbeeney/status/1059877668471164928
*- A previous version of this post incorrectly overlapped Heeney’s playing career with Beaty’s time as head coach at KU.*
