The problem for KU is threefold.
1) Kansas does not produce enough D-1 talent through the high school ranks.
2) That talent pool is divided in state between 2 programs, with at least 5 other major programs (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa) that consistently get players from Kansas.
3) Kansas football has no identity.
Take Baylor. Baylor was awful for years before Art Briles arrived. He came in and established an identity for the program. There's a great article on Grantland ↗ about how Briles turned the program around by bringing in the offense he ran successfully in high school and establishing that was how Baylor would play as well.
That has not happened at KU. Even during the Mangino years, KU ran the spread, but there was no feeling that KU ran that offense because that was a part of KU's identity. It was more as if KU was just a part of a fad. It's especially telling because prior to Reesing, that was not the offense that Mangino ran.
Defensively, the story has been the same. It's not as if you can say KU is an aggressive defense, or they are a gap defense, or this or that. There's not a clear identity, which hurts recruiting because we can't sell wins, or history, or things like that, and on top of that, we can't even say come to the Hill and play this specific style.
I've come to the conclusion that Weis is not the guy that can do that. I'm not calling for his firing because I don't think hiring a fourth coach in six seasons is helpful either, but the next KU football coach needs to have an idea of how to establish a program identity. KU needs someone that can come in and establish that identity, not bring an identity from somewhere else.
To compare it to basketball, you know what the identities of the major coaches are - Self runs the high low, Williams runs the secondary break motion, Calipari runs the dribble drive, Coach K has his motion offense, Pitino has that trapping press, Boeheim has the matchup zone. There isn't a single recruit in the country that doesn't know that about those coaches. They can recruit based on that. Look at what a school like VCU has done with that crazy trapping, pressing, ball pressure defense they play. They get kids to come to VCU specifically to play that style.
KU needs to be able to say come to Kansas because you can play like this, whatever this may be. That's what Oregon did, that's what Baylor has done, that's what Nebraska did during the Osborne era. In my opinion, that's the only way KU will be successful in football. Otherwise you're depending on luck to crank out a decent team every 8-10 years.
