Charlie Weis is no longer the coach of Kansas. John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas is looking for another new football coach. Again.
Following a 23-0 loss against Texas on Sept. 27, Charlie Weis was fired the next morning. In his third year of a five-year contract, Weis stood 6-22, including a 2-2 mark this season.
“I normally do not favor changing coaches mid-season,” athletic director Sheahon Zenger said in a statement, “but I believe we have talented coaches and players in this program, and I think this decision gives our players the best chance to begin making progress right away.”
Defensive coordinator Clint Bowen was named interim coach. Bowen played at Kansas and served on the staff under three previous head coaches.
The move was made after the Jayhawks were blanked in their conference opener. They committed four turnovers, all interceptions by sophomore quarterback Montell Cozart, who completed just 12-of-31 passes for 140 yards. The Jayhawks rank eighth in the Big 12 in total offense with a 359-yard average and last in scoring with a 15.2-point average.
The hiring of Weis was made by Zenger. In his first year as athletic director, Zenger fired Turner Gill after the former Nebraska standout completed the second year of a five-year contract. Gill stood 5-19, with one Big 12 victory. Weis also logged one Big 12 win, against West Virginia, the opponent Kansas faces on Oct. 4. Before them, Mark Mangino posted a winning record (50-48) in eight seasons overseeing the Jayhawks and guided the 2007 squad to a 12-1 mark with a win in the Orange Bowl.
“I appreciate what coach Weis did with several facets of our football program,” said Zenger, “but we have not made the on-the-field progress we believe we should. I believe new leadership gives our coaches and players the best chance to make a fresh start.”
Weis enjoyed success in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, but as a head coach he was also fired by his alma mater, Notre Dame, after five seasons. He will be owed the remainder of a five-year contract he signed with Kansas, worth a total of $12.5 million.
In addition to the Texas shutout over Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State opened Big 12 play with victories against Iowa State and Texas Tech, respectively. Kansas State and TCU rolled to easy nonconference wins against UTEP and SMU, respectively.
TCU is the only Big 12 team to yet begin conference play, but will do so on Oct. 4 by playing host to Oklahoma. Another key conference clash finds undefeated Baylor traveling to Texas.
BAYLOR (4-0, 1-0)
Game: Baylor 49, Iowa State 28. Baylor started 4-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 76 years as QB Bryce Petty passed for 336 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for two scores. RB Shock Linwood added three rushing touchdowns for the Bears, who jumped to a 35-7 halftime margin and were never threatened in their Big 12 opener.
Takeaway: Two potent Baylor receivers returned off injuries to provide the Bears offense even more explosion. Corey Coleman (hamstring) and Antwan Goodley (quadriceps) combined for 18 catches and 268 yards receiving to provide a big chunk of Baylor’s production.
Coleman suffered his injury in fall camp, while Goodley was hurt in the opening minutes of the season opener against SMU. Coleman made a nice splash, grabbing a career-high 12 receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown, while Goodley added six receptions for 114 yards.
“I felt like a little kid at Christmas who got his toys back,” Petty said. “With them it’s an explosive play waiting to happen every time they touch the ball. I love having them out here.”
Petty incorporated both receivers into the attack from the outset as Baylor established a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Iowa State responded with a 92-yard scoring drive, but was then blanked the remainder of the first half.
“I’m way more hungry now than before my injury,” Goodley said. “I’m not 100 percent yet, but I’ll be good. I want to be out there as much as I can. I’m out of shape right now, and it’s good to get back in the flow of things.”
Next: at Texas, Oct. 4.
IOWA STATE (1-3, 0-2)
Game: Baylor 49, Iowa State 28. The Cyclones responded to a 14-0 first quarter deficit by driving 92 yards on an 11-play touchdown march, but simply could not match Baylor’s firepower. The Cyclones allowed 601 yards to the Bears, including 380 in the first half when Baylor established a 35-7 halftime gap. Sam Richardson passed for 212 yards and also led Iowa State with 99 yards rushing.
Takeaway: The typical formula for hanging with Baylor involves working the clock. To do so offensively, teams must methodically milk time with possession receivers and backs that are productive enough in the run game to move the chains.
Iowa State could not implement such a plan because its running backs were almost nonexistent in the offense. The Cyclones got just 28 yards rushing on 20 carries from their backs, and were so desperate before halftime that true freshman Martinez Syria was given an opportunity.
As for the Cyclones’ quarterback, Richardson was most dependable on the ground with his 99 yards. However, ISU’s top running backs, Aaron Wimberly and DeVondrick Nealy, are averaging just 2.9 yards per carry. The longest carry by a Cyclone running back is 16 yards and against the Bears, the longest went for five yards.
“It’s not the backfield,” Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said. “It’s the whole combination of everything that it takes to establish a running game. It needs drastic improvement.”
If it was any consolation, the outcome was not a repeat of the 70-7 trouncing Iowa State absorbed last season at Baylor. Still, the damage was done early as Bryce Petty and Co. had no trouble coming out and shelling the Iowa State secondary.
Next: at Oklahoma State, Oct. 4.
KANSAS (2-2, 0-1)
Game: Texas 23, Kansas 0. The Kansas defense deserved better, allowing touchdowns on drives of just 18, 13 and 27 yards because of prime position Texas gained off two turnovers and a big return. The Longhorns managed 329 yards, but the Jayhawks went 0-for-2 in the red zone and committed four turnovers as QB Montell Cozart finished 12-of-31 passing for 140 yards, with four interceptions.
Takeaway: For as much as Charlie Weis gained a reputation for polishing quarterbacks in the NFL, the ousted coach simply could not get anything done at that position in the 28 games he coached at Kansas.
The past two seasons, he installed a pair of FBS transfers, Dayne Christ (Notre Dame) and Jake Heaps (BYU) as starters, but both flopped. Montell Cozart was summoned midway through last season as a true freshman, and was awarded the starting job in spring camp for the 2014 season.
However, the sophomore looks far too shaky with execution and has been far too inaccurate as a thrower, going 58-for-115, a 50.4 percent ratio, while tossing seven interceptions in four games. He was also sacked four times by Texas and threw several passes out of bounds to avoid pressure. A fifth interception was nullified by a roughing-the-passer penalty.
“I was concerned enough that walking off at halftime I called him over to talk to me,” Weis said. “I go, ‘What matters is it’s 13-0. That’s what matters. It’s not like it’s 38-0, it’s 13-0. Let’s find a way to score one touchdown to get it to 13-7, and then let the chips fall where they may.”‘
Kansas never struck for that elusive TD. When it got closest to scoring and faced fourth-and-goal from the Texas 5, Cozart was instructed to throw a difficult fade pattern and the pass fell incomplete. The Jayhawks did manage 173 yards rushing, including 83 from RB De’Andre Mann.
Next: at West Virginia, Oct. 4.
KANSAS STATE (3-1, 1-0)
Game: Kansas State 58, UTEP 28. RB Charles Jones rushed for three touchdowns and QB Jake Waters accounted for two more TDs as the Wildcats started fast. Their defense limited UTEP to three-and-outs on the first five possessions and just 23 first-half yards as Kansas State enjoyed a 31-0 halftime lead. Tyler Lockett added a punt return for a touchdown.
Takeaway: Lockett was not used as a return man in the first two games as he dealt with a strained hamstring that limited his playing time. Suddenly, however, he has added punt return duties to his usual responsibility running back kickoffs.
The move looked smart against UTEP as Lockett raced 58 yards for a touchdown and finished with 143 yards on five punt returns, the second-best output by a Wildcat. Another TD return was nullified by a penalty for blocking in the back.
“I’m starting to get comfortable back there,” said Lockett, who has five career returns for TDs, the first four on kickoffs. “You just have to go back there a couple of times. You have (coaches) teach you and tell you some stuff like, ‘Trust your speed, you don’t have to cut back a lot.”‘
A blocked punt by Deante Burton put the Wildcats in position for their first score, a 25-yard field goal by Matthew McCrane, who moved into the regular kicking spot after Jack Cantele missed three field goals against Auburn. Another blocked punt was over-ruled because of an inadvertent whistle on a review that took more than 10 minutes to administer. UTEP then got to punt again.
“Apparently there’s a rule that I’m totally unaware of, and trust me, that’s the first thing I’m going to do when I walk out of here, I’m going to find that rule,” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. “(Officials) did the best they could, it just took them an hour-and-a-half to do it.”
Next: vs. Texas Tech, Oct. 4.
OKLAHOMA (4-0, 1-0)
Game: Idle.
Next: at TCU, Oct. 4.
OKLAHOMA STATE (3-1, 1-0)
Game: Oklahoma State 45, Texas Tech 35. Daxx Garman completed 16-of-28 passes for 361 yards and four touchdowns as Oklahoma State showed its quick-strike capacity. The Cowboys needed just 14 plays to score their first four touchdowns. RB Desmond Roland added 86 yards on 23 carries as Oklahoma State won its third straight after a season-opening loss to Florida State.
Takeaway: Garman last played in 2009 when he was a junior in high school. He was ineligible his final year of high school, then signed with Arizona but sat out as a freshman before eventually transferring to Oklahoma State.
Although he entered the season as the Cowboys’ backup, an injury to J.W. Walsh in the second game prompted Garman to finally see action. Since then, he has 24 completions of 15 or more yards, and even had strikes of 21 and 70 yards called back against Texas Tech because of offensive pass interference.
“Daxx handled himself well,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “It was his first Big 12 game and only his third game at this level. I don’t remember him making a mistake in our run-pass checks. He’s learning and he’s getting better.”
The Cowboys’ leading receiver was Marcell Ateman who had six catches for 130 yards. Five receivers had one catch apiece, though three of those grabs (by Blake Jarwin, Jeremy Seaton and Chris Lacy) were explosion gains of 23 yards or more.
“They had eight, nine guys in the box to stop the run,” Roland said. “That’s why we were able to throw the ball deep so well.”
Next: vs. Iowa State, Oct. 4.
TCU (3-0, 0-0)
Game: TCU 56, SMU 0. Trevone Boykin accounted for six touchdowns while completing 23-of-36 passes for 280 yards and adding 67 yards in the run game. TCU managed 614 total yards, while its defense, which came in leading the nation with a 205.5-yard yield, allowed 245 yards. The shutout was the 13th win in the last 15 meetings for the Horned Frogs in the Metroplex series.
Takeaway: TCU actually started slow, which was to be expected to some extent since the Horned Frogs were coming off their second bye week since the start of the season. After gaining a 7-0 lead, TCU had first-and-goal from the SMU 1-yard line, but came away empty.
“We haven’t had a game in two weeks,” said Boykin, “so some of the stuff that happened in the first quarter was to just get back in the game flow. I feel like right before halftime we picked it up.”
TCU continues to adapt to a new spread system installed over the offseason by co-coordinators that were hired by coach Gary Patterson. At the end of the first half the Frogs needed just 61 seconds to march 70 yards in six plays and gain a 28-0 lead at the break.
“This offense will be good because of the players and how fast you get the plays off and how we do things,” Patterson said. “Trevone has only played so much in this offense. He’s three games into being the quarterback in this offense, besides the spring.”
Throughout the idle practices, Patterson contended that his team did not look sharp and put the Frogs through various paces to boost their intensity. Although they responded with a lopsided shutout, it was achieved against an SMU team that had its coach, June Jones, resign early in the season and has scored just 13 points in four games.
“I know what’s coming and how good these teams are,” Patterson said of the Big 12 schedule, which begins with back-to-back games against league co-favorites Oklahoma and Baylor. “We can still find things we need to work on. Everything from now on is going to go fast.”
Next: vs. Oklahoma, Oct. 4.
TEXAS (2-2, 1-0)
Game: Texas 45, Kansas 35. Texas capitalized on four Kansas turnovers and the Longhorns produced touchdowns on short drives of 18, 13 and 27 yards to claim the Big 12 opener and snap a two-game losing skid. Quarterback Tyrone Swoopes completed 19-of-34 passes for 218 yards, with two touchdowns. He also rushed for another score.
Takeaway: The road shutout was the first for Texas since 2005 and included an inspired performance from CB Duke Thomas, who was burned just two weeks earlier for the decisive touchdown strike UCLA used to overturn the Longhorns.
Thomas swiped two passes against Kansas among the four interceptions the Longhorns managed while limiting the Jayhawks to 12 completions on 31 attempts.
Noting that he “was upset for days” following the UCLA loss, Thomas got over his letdown by not being reminded of any mistake he made. “I didn’t watch it once. Just skipped right over it,” he said.
Texas was not much more productive than Kansas, gaining 329 yards to the Jayhawks’ 313. Still, the Longhorns converted on opportunities and had two receivers, John Harris and Jaxon Shipley, snag six receptions apiece while combining for 170 yards.
“We’re not in sync quite like we want to be,” said RB Johnathan Gray, who led the Texas rushers with 44 yards on 13 carries.
With the picks, the Texas defense boosted its season total to nine, just one shy of what the Longhorns recorded last season. They rank third in the Big 12 in turnover margin (plus-four) with 11 takeaways and seven giveaways. Competition picks up the next two weeks, however, when Texas faces Baylor and Oklahoma.
“You have to come out and start fast. You have to show them you can play,” Shipley said. “I think the most important thing is to come out and score on the first drive. Our defense has done a really good job, so I think we can hold them as well. It’s ultimately about the offense right now. We need to match the defense.”
Next: vs. Baylor, Oct. 4.
TEXAS TECH (2-2, 0-1)
Game: Oklahoma State 45, Texas Tech 35. QB Davis Webb completed 35-of-54 passes for 374 yards and four touchdowns before leaving early in the fourth quarter with a shoulder injury. Two first-half interceptions proved costly, including one Webb threw with the Red Raiders driving and looking to snap a 14-14 tie. The pick led to a touchdown that gave Oklahoma State the lead for good.
Takeaway: Although Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury did not detail the severity of the shoulder injury suffered by Webb, the sophomore did not return after going into the locker room for treatment. Instead, he was on the sideline visibly upset, but exhorting his teammates. The left shoulder Webb injured was his non-throwing shoulder.
“I just know they didn’t feel like he could come back in,” said Kingsbury, “but I’m not sure of his status.”
A true freshman, Patrick Mahomes, replaced Webb. Mahomes looked frightened at times, fumbling on one play before regaining the ball and making an ill-advised throw into the flat that was intercepted.
Kingsbury could be left to get Mahomes ready, however, something the Tech coach has done before with other freshmen such as Houston’s David Piland, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, and at Texas Tech, Webb and Baker Mayfield. Mayfield transferred after last season and is attempting to gain eligibility at Oklahoma.
“He’s a competitor. He wants to be out there,” receiver Bradley Marquez said of Webb. “But we’ve got to look out for his best interests down the road and get him healthy. By no means did he want to come out of that game.”
Mahomes threw his first touchdown pass in the fourth quarter following the shaky interception deep in his own territory that led to an easy touchdown for Oklahoma State.
“He was up and down,” Kingsbury said. “He’s a competitor so he came in and fought, but your first playing time is a little tough.”
Next: at Kansas State, Oct. 4.
WEST VIRGINIA (2-2, 0-1)
Game: Idle.
Next: vs. Kansas, Oct. 4.
