but he's moving them in the right direction.
based on what?
Recruiting mostly. I think he is dirty enough to flirt with the lines of compliance in a way that can land them enough talent to start winning games.
Gill recruited fairly well for a while. Their recruits are dropping like flies.
Make no mistake, their program is as bad as it's ever been. They're in the same spot they've been in since 2010.
If they don't turn the corner in 2019( 5 wins or more) then I would have no problem firing him, but his recruiting is trending in the right direction. Mangino got it rolling a bit quicker but I don't think the program in 2002 was in as bad of shape as it was in 2015.
OK, just so we're clear we're not basing this "moving in the right direction" stuff on any on-the-field, tangible results.
So even ignoring that, Beaty doesn't have the experience that Mangino had. Mangino knew what he was doing because Mangino had legitimate, high level experience under some of the best coaches ever.
Mangino had an actual pedigree, as a position coach under LHOFHCBS for 8 years, as a coordinator under Bob Stoops for their national title team, and was given the Broyles award. Not to mention, he spent some time coaching under Tressel at Youngstown.
Meanwhile Beaty was a position coach under Kevin Sumlin who is going to get fired here in about 3 months. That's it. This could be a hot take, but without Johnny Manziel, Sumlin wouldn't be A&M's coach anymore, and Beaty wouldn't be KU's coach. Beaty is a glorified high school coach who has no business being the head guy for a P5 team. He's in WAY over his head and hasn't ever been able to do something as simple as decide on a quarterback. The only notable thing he's done is hire Meacham - who was about to be fired from TCU. Meanwhile, he's still leading KU to double digit loss seasons, same as it ever was.
They're not any closer to even being a run-of-the-mill bad team/program (e.g. Iowa State) than they were under Gill or Weis. It's a cruel Catch-22: at this point the coaches who could turn around that program would never stoop so low as to take that career killing job, unless they get someone capable but disgraced (like Pelini) or some weirdo-masochist-savant like Snyder who inexplicably decides he wants to spend the next 5 years of his life trying to turn the worst program in the P5 around. Beaty is neither.
When KU achieves something as pedestrian as losing fewer than 10 games, I'll concede that they're starting to make progress. Until then, any perceived progress is a function of how competent their FCS or bottom-feeder OOC opponents happen to be in a given season.
The next time someone tries to tell you that Dlew12 doesn't know how to assess KU football, print out the quoted post, roll it up into a tube, and bop them in the head with it.