Kansas Jayhawks Football

The Kansas Jayhawks may no longer be known as just a basketball program; their football team is on the verge of changing things real soon.

Of course, this change won't come overnight. This is a program that went 2-10 last year and hasn't won a bowl game since 2008. Since then, they haven't even reached a bowl game. Needless to say, this is a program that isn't used to much success.

Change is beginning to happen at Kansas, as Charlie Weis has taken over as head coach. He is a proven winner that has a solid track record everywhere he has went.

He's also brought along two former five-star recruits in quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps. Both have transferred from their respective schools and are willing to do what they can to help this program become respectable.

Now, once again changing this program isn't going to happen right away, as they still have a horrible recruiting class. In fact, it's the worst in the Big 12 conference. But having two quality quarterbacks for the next couple of years is a fantastic start. With a great quarterback, you're able to make up for a lot of other weaknesses in your team.

When you have a great offensive-minded coach like Weis, that also helps your program out. Weis has never been a coach that has needed the most talented team. He knows exactly how to use his players and get the most out of them. They may not have been born with amazing athleticism, but Weis will put them in a position to succeed. 

His name alone will also help change recruiting in Kansas. The Jayhwaks may never have had a great recruiting class, but having the chance to play for a great head coach and a star quarterback will change things. Again, they may not get the best of the best, but they could be able to steal quite a few underrated players that are much better than what this team is use to seeing.

Then you have what's going on with other teams within the conference.

Oklahoma is losing a ton of players, including Ryan Broyles and possibly Landry Jones. Baylor has lost wide receiver Kendall Wright and will probably lose Heisman winner Robert Griffin. Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon of Oklahoma State are also on their way to the NFL. Texas A&M is leaving for the SEC.

Don't be surprised if this Kansas team is in the thick of things in the Big 12 this season.

Not saying they're national championship contenders just yet, but Jayhawk fans will soon have a reason to be excited about football season.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or Randy.Chambers7@yahoo.com

As if landing Notre Dame transfer Dayne Crist wasn’t enough, Charlie Weis pulled in another big target for his Kansas Jayhawks.

Former BYU starting quarterback Jake Heaps has decided to transfer to the university as well. He will have to sit out a year due to the NCAA’s transfer rules. Crist will not have to because he already completed a degree.

That means Kansas will have two quarterbacks that Weis recruited to play at Notre Dame, each with previous starting experience.

There really isn’t much else the guy can do to start building a program.

He is an offensive-minded guy, and this is the Big 12, so getting solid quarterback play is an absolute must. And with many of the top playmakers in the conference leaving for the draft, the timing is perfect for the Jayhawks to get back to the way it looked in 2007 when it won the Orange Bowl.

That said, Kansas needs more players on both side of the ball other than quarterback. No running back has emerged as a true threat, and the same holds true at wide receiver. As for the defense, it ranks dead last in the country with a whopping 43 points allowed per game on average.

Help is needed at every single position, but particularly in the secondary because of all the spread options in the Big 12.

Still, after less than a month on the job, things could not be going much better for Charlie Weis.

The Kansas Jayhawks are collecting quarterbacks.

According to Mason Kelley of the Seattle Times, former BYU quarterback Jake Heaps announced on Thursday that he will be transferring to Kansas to play under new head coach Charlie Weis.

Earlier on Thursday, former Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist announced on Twitter that he will also be joining the Jayhawks. Crist will be eligible to play right away in 2012, as he was able to graduate before his eligibility expired.

Heaps, on the other hand, will have to sit out the 2012 season due to NCAA transfer rules. He will be able to play again in 2013 and will have two years of eligibility left.

Heaps, a sophomore, was released from his BYU scholarship on Dec. 5, and he paid a visit to Lawrence, Kan. last weekend.

In his freshman season at BYU in 2010, Heaps took over for Riley Nelson after he suffered a shoulder injury and proceeded to lead the Cougars to four wins in their final five regular season games. He then threw four touchdown passes in BYU's rout of UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl.

Heaps proceeded to struggle in 2011, eventually losing his starting job.

Kansas hired Weis to take over for Turner Gill on Dec. 8. He will be charged with rebuilding a Jayhawks offense that finished 95th in scoring in 2011 and 101st in passing offense. The Jayhawks lost 10 games in a row to finish the season.

Weis spent the 2011 season as the offensive coordinator at Florida. The Gators finished 71st in scoring in 2011.

While most college football teams are landing top players in the form of recruiting, the Kansas Jayhawks landed theirs in a transfer.

Former Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist has decided to play football next season for Kansas and head coach Charlie Weis. The Jayhawks head coach was the one who recruited Crist to play for Notre Dame to begin with.

This move may come as a surprise to some people because Crist was considering playing for Wisconsin as well. But Badgers offensive coordinator Paul Chryst decided to leave and become the head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers. That had to play a huge factor in Crist's decision to play for Kansas.

Now that Weis has his quarterback, how quickly can he turn things around?

And maybe, just maybe, could he ever build a better team than the head coach that replaced him at Notre Dame?

There's no question Weis has a ton of work on his plate. He's taking over a team that went 2-10 this season and had a defense that ranked dead last in the country, giving up 43 points per game. This program hasn't made a bowl game since 2008 and has won double-digit games just once since 1995.

Kansas is mainly known as a basketball school, but Weis is here to change that:

You’re not chasing a job, so you just start talking. You look at it objectively. You know they have great facilities. You know it’s a great school, really solid academically. On the other hand, you look at the record: 2-10. But there’s another school in the state [Kansas State] that is 10-2.

Obviously you can win in that state. There’s already an answer to that question. They can. So you’re coming into a place that’s 2-10, but there’s no reason for that. If one school in the state can be successful and you happen to be at the ‘University of’…I saw it as a golden opportunity.

The Jayhawks may also have another former 5-star quarterback coming in Jake Heaps, who is looking to transfer from BYU. He is expected to visit the campus and make a decision soon on where he'd like to play.

That now gives Weis possibly two solid quarterbacks to build this program with. The problem now has to do with the players around them, as the recruiting class isn't that great and the competition in the Big 12 is.

Weis has always been known to turn around offenses, as he runs the spread offense down to a science and is great at getting the most out of his players. You give him a team that may lack the talent to be great, and Weis will put the players in positions to be a lot better than they really are. There is no question that this offense will be a lot better than the 22 points it averaged this season.

Now, will the Jayhawks ever be better than Brian Kelly and the Irish?

That's a tough one because the Irish always have top prospects coming in and will always have a more talented team than the Jayhawks will. But Kansas can become relevant and competitive and make things interesting in the Big 12 if it continues on this path.

Will hard work present better results than pure talent? Only time will answer that question.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or Randy.Chambers7@yahoo.com

When former 5-star recruit Dayne Crist decided to transfer from Notre Dame, many schools courted him to become their next starting quarterback. In the end, he decided to follow the man who recruited him to Notre Dame, Charlie Weis, and go to the University of Kansas.

The move should not come as much of a surprise when the other reportedly top school in the running, Wisconsin, lost its offensive coordinator Paul Chryst to Pitt.

Crist left Notre Dame after an injury sidelined him for the end of the 2010 season and was benched for a poor opening performance in 2011 in favor of Tommy Rees. He made the announced with a tweet.

Kansas is the ideal school for Crist to wind up at from a coaching standpoint, but in terms of comparing the Jayhawks to Notre Dame, there really is none. The Irish are still the far superior team.

While he is a solid quarterback, football is a team sport and no one on the Kansas roster has stepped up on offense in any capacity. The running backs go by a committee and neither of the top two guys have a better yards per carry average than 4.1. The leading wide receiver has never had a 100-yard game and only has 437 yards this season.

Then there’s the defense, which was the absolute worst defense in college football this year, allowing an unthinkable 43 points per game.

The only thing that kept Notre Dame out of a BCS bowl this year was the fact that the players couldn’t hold onto the football long enough to finish drives. Special teams also killed their chances in multiple games this year.

The Irish will lose 10 starters from this year’s team but linebacker Manti Te’o is returning and Brian Kelly has been bringing in some of the nation’s best talent. They should be at least as good as this year’s team.

Kansas, on the other hand, went 2-10 and lost its final 10 games. The Jayhawks will be improved but the addition of Dayne Crist will only get them to a bowl game if they’re lucky.

Former Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist will transfer to the University of Kansas to play out his final year of NCAA eligibility, according to a Tweet he posted Thursday afternoon.

Crist (@dcrist10) tweeted: "After a long & difficult decision making process, I'm incredibly excited to join the Kansas football team. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!"

Crist graduated from Notre Dame this fall but has a year of eligibility remaining.

He was reportedly also considering Wisconsin, where QB Russell Wilson transferred for the 2011 season from North Carolina State to play his final year of eligibility.

The quarterback announced at the end of the season that he would leave Notre Dame to seek opportunities elsewhere

Crist's tenure at Notre Dame was marked by injury and inconsistency. In November 2009, when he served as Carolina Panthers QB Jimmy Clausen's backup, Crist tore his ACL, ending his season.

In 2010, Crist started for the Fighting Irish, throwing for a 129.3 QB rating and completing 59.2 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions before rupturing his patella tendon in mid November.

Crist started the 2011 season as Notre Dame's starting QB, but was benched in favor of sophomore Tommy Rees and only played in four more games, spending the last four on the bench.

At Kansas, Crist will rejoin former head coach Charlie Weiss, who will take over the Jayhawks in 2012 after serving as Florida's offensive coordinator for one season.

Dayne Crist has finally decided where he wants to play college football next year, and it's not a huge surprise that he announced via Twitter that he's going to play for the Kansas Jayhawks. 

The former Notre Dame quarterback will greatly help Charlie Weis' first season at Kansas because Crist does not have to sit out a year. 

Transferring schools in college football is nothing new, but being able to go from one FBS school to another and starting right away is a new trend.

The catch is that you have to be attending graduate school in order to do so. 

Weis was the head coach at Notre Dame during Crist's recruitment, but everybody knows Weis failed big-time with the Fighting Irish. He went to the NFL and back college ball before taking the head coaching job at Kansas. 

Landing Crist will help Kansas have a quick turnaround. The Jayhawks were 2-10 this past season and in desperate need of a change. 

However, Crist has to stay healthy if Kansas expects to get any better from a year ago.  

He was beaten out by Tommy Rees this season at Notre Dame, but the only reason Rees gained experience was because Crist injured his knee last year. 

Two knee injuries during his college career is cause for concern for Kansas. But if he manages to stay healthy, the Jayhawks will be better than most think.

Known as a basketball school, the Jayhawks are making great efforts to boost their football program. 

Kansas hiring Weis was a move to help the football program gain more attention. The Jayhawks are on the right track by landing Crist, and it will help recruiting if they're able to reel off big wins in 2012.

Don't expect epic things from Kansas next season though. The team has a lot of holes that need fixing, but the Jayhawks are headed in the right direction.

Having Crist will prevent them from being atrocious for another season, which in turn should help the program in the long run. 

Dayne Crist isn’t the only elite quarterback transferring this year. BYU’s Jake Heaps announced that he would be transferring, but now, we may know where he will end up. According to Jayhawkslant.com, Heaps will be visiting Kansas and new head coach Charlie Weis.

As the top pro-style quarterback in the 2010 recruiting class per Rivals.com rankings, he was recruited by Weis while he was still at Notre Dame. Crist is also being courted by the coach, but he would not have to sit out a year because he has his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame.

Heaps would have to wait his turn per NCAA rules, but Crist wouldn’t have any more eligibility at that point.

This would be a great move for the sophomore because he could definitely use some more coaching. He has had some major interception issues during his career and was replaced by Riley Nelson, who is more mobile.

Heaps is the ideal guy to run Weis’ pro-style offense, and by the time he is able to play, there should be at least some playmakers surrounding him to make his job a little easier.

In order for Weis’ offense to function properly, he needs a quality quarterback, and until he can recruit one, getting big name transfers like Heaps and Crist will be imperative for the immediate success of the program.

Another possible destination for Heaps is in his home state playing for Mike Leach at Washington State. Marshall Lobbestael doesn’t have any eligibility after this year, so the Cougars will need a quarterback for next season, which Heaps can’t help with. It’s also debatable how successful he would be in Leach’s “Air Raid” offense, which works out of the shotgun.

Don’t be surprised if this visit to Kansas will ultimately seal the deal for Heaps.

While there have been a lot of coaching changes in the past two weeks, there are two that have been talked about much more than others.

On Friday, Kansas announced the hiring of former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis to replace Turner Gill, who was fired less than two weeks earlier.

One day later, UCLA announced the hiring of former NFL coach Jim Mora Jr. to replace Rick Neuheisel, who was let go after another disappointing season. Mora will officially be announced early next week at a press conference. 

While these are both big-name coaches and they have had some success in head coaching positions, they have ended up being disappointments for the most part.

The question is, who is the worse hire of the two?

Weis was considered an offensive genius while he served as offensive coordinator under Bill Belichick at New England. After inheriting a Notre Dame team that had a lot of talent, including quarterback Brady Quinn, Weis ran the program into the ground in five seasons.

He went 9-3 and 10-3 in his first two seasons as head coach with players that weren't his. In his final three seasons, he went 16-21 before being let go after a 6-6 campaign in 2009.

Weis spent this season as offensive coordinator of the Florida Gators after working as the Kansas City Chiefs' offensive coordinator in 2010.

Mora Jr. has been an NFL head coach and has had limited success.

He led the Atlanta Falcons to an 11-5 regular season record and to the NFC Championship Game in his first season in 2004. From that point on, though, it was a lot of disappointment. After going 8-8 in 2005, he followed that up with a 7-9 record in 2006 and his time in Atlanta came to an end.

He was hired as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and went 5-11 in his only season. After spending the past two years as an NFL broadcaster, Mora Jr. was the choice for the Bruins.

Both Weis and Mora should be upgrades over who was there before them, but with that being said, Mora was clearly the better hire. He has had success at the NFL level and that will likely translate into some success at the college level.

Weis has struggled with his own players, and getting recruits at Kansas will be a little harder than getting them at Notre Dame.

While neither of these hires are much to brag about, Mora Jr. will have more success at UCLA than Weis will at Kansas.