Even if Jason Bean isn’t Kansas football's starting QB, he may still have a role and play

LAWRENCE — Jason Bean is naming the top three fastest players on Kansas football’s roster, and he’s having a tough time picking a teammate for third place.

Bean, a redshirt senior quarterback for the Jayhawks, muses it could be either redshirt junior linebacker Craig Young or redshirt sophomore wide receiver Quentin Skinner. It could be one of a couple of other guys, Bean wonders, to wrap up a trio that Bean has redshirt junior wide receiver Trevor Wilson taking second place in. And then he adds something Wednesday after another fall camp practice that matters in more than just this lighthearted exercise, considering a conversation that’s surrounded the program in recent days.

“Me at top, always, though,” Bean says, smiling.

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See, while Bean is competing to be Kansas’ starting quarterback, he also has a collection of traits as an athlete that make him a valuable asset on the field even if he doesn’t start there. Considering Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold said Tuesday he expects junior quarterback Jalon Daniels to be their starter, it’s all the more important to ensure a talent like that isn’t just standing on the sideline all fall. And when offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki was asked if there’s a plan for Bean, if Bean doesn’t start there, he responded one thing they feel they do well is making sure their best players play.

“If we’ve got seven really good offensive linemen, we’ll have packages for them,” Kotelnicki continued. “If we’ve got five really good receivers, we’ll have packages for them. And when you look at where we’re at, especially from the skill-position standpoint, there’s a lot of competition and parity in a lot of the rooms. And so, one of the things that we’ll be able to use is multiple personnel groupings in each of them, right? And have a nice little package for everybody.”

Putting Bean in that position is a risk, because should Bean suffer an injury it doesn’t just take a versatile talent off the field. It would affect Kansas’ quarterback depth, as Bean is in line to at worst be Daniels’ backup. The early-November loss last season against Kansas State showed how quickly a team like Kansas can go from starter (Bean) to backup (Miles Kendrick) to third-string (Daniels) in one game, due to injury, and there’s no guarantee the Jayhawks would be able to rebound as well in 2022 from that as they did in 2021.

But in what will be the second season of Leipold’s rebuild at Kansas, if there are packages with Bean that can be successful those packages can help the team improve upon its 2-10 record last season. There’s also been far more time to work on what it all might look like, compared to what was possible last fall when Daniels stepped up to start the last three games and Bean eventually returned from injury. It’s just a matter of potential third-string options at quarterback like redshirt freshman Ben Easters and freshman Ethan Vasko being ready enough to make the risk worth the reward.

Kotelnicki acknowledged how this possibility makes it all the more important that Easters and Vasko are capable, but noted as well that’s always going to be the case regardless. Whenever a two-deep depth chart is released, Kotelnicki said, the names that aren’t listed are individuals who’ll still be expected to perform. Kotelnicki volunteered that those two have both been doing well as fall camp has started, and that it’s evident the offense as a whole is further along right now than it was at this time a year ago.

“I have my voice,” Kotelnicki said. “Last year at this time, my voice was already gone because we feel like we’re yelling, the expectation on the field, about how we transition and how we do things … That’s not an issue at all.”

Bean, on Vasko, added: “Ethan’s good. He still has a long way to go, obviously, it’s his first couple months here. But I think he has the potential to be really good and, once again, I’m always here for him to help him to grow.”

If considering getting onto the field in a way that isn’t the starting quarterback has been on Bean’s mind, though, he didn’t reveal it. Bean, reacting to Leipold’s statement that Daniels is the expected starter, said that “goes right over my head” and is “nothing that I can control.” Bean, who started the first nine games in 2021 at quarterback, expressed excitement about the depth Kansas has at the position and how that competition can make everyone better.

Like Daniels, whom Bean considers a close friend, Bean has been spending recent months focusing on what he needs to do in order to improve and be in a position to help Kansas improve. Bean wants to be a part of the Jayhawks making progress as a program. He noted he and Kotelnicki “haven’t really talked” about what getting onto the field might look like, if he isn’t the starting quarterback.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Jason Bean may have role on Kansas football, even if he loses QB derby