<table> </table> LAWRENCE | Bill Young and Clint Bowen still talk all the time. They trade ideas for their games each week and try to help each other out.</p><p>Young, now the defensive coordinator at Miami, Fla., after six seasons running the defense at Kansas, knows that Bowen, his replacement at KU, is hurting after back-to-back games in which the Jayhawks gave up a combined 108 points and 1,230 yards of total offense.</p><p>While it would be easy for KU fans to point the finger at Bowen &#8212; and, no doubt, some already have &#8212; Young gave the situation a dose of reality Tuesday morning from his office in Coral Gables, Fla.</p><p>&#8220;The issue that Kansas has got is something they knew they were going to have going into the season,&#8221; Young said. &#8220;You line up against Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, wow.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s not a kid on that Kansas team that Texas offered. If you look at the kids on the Texas Tech team, there&#8217;s a whole bunch of guys that wouldn&#8217;t come visit Kansas. I recruited Oklahoma. I guarantee you won&#8217;t find anybody on Oklahoma&#8217;s team that wanted to come to Kansas. They had their opportunity and turned us down. That&#8217;s the issue right there. No question.&#8221;</p><p>Young left KU for warm weather and sandy beaches nine months ago, but referring to the Jayhawks as &#8220;us&#8221; still feels natural. Of course, the Hurricanes are &#8220;we&#8221; now, too, and you can hear his own frustration with the 2008 season in describing crushing defeats against North Carolina &#8212; &#8220;We let them get two bombs on us in the fourth quarter,&#8221; he said &#8212; and Florida State &#8212; &#8220;We had them on the rope and we let them get a long run on us,&#8221; he lamented.</p><p>&#8220;If I just coached a little bit better,&#8221; Young said, &#8220;it&#8217;d be OK.&#8221;</p><p>If Bowen were allowed to talk on Tuesday &#8212; KU coach Mark Mangino did not make Bowen available to reporters &#8212; he likely would have put it on himself like Young, his mentor. At least, that&#8217;s what Bowen did on Sunday during his meeting with the defense.</p><p>&#8220;Most of it was our fault,&#8221; KU linebacker Joe Mortensen said, &#8220;our fundamentals, our assignments, but he came in there and took the blame. I really find that rare in coaches. It was really impressive. It takes a big man to admit when he&#8217;s wrong, especially when we didn&#8217;t think he was wrong at all. We just thought we played like crap.&#8221;</p><p>The Jayhawks, now 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12, are 111th nationally in pass defense, giving up 271 yards per game. They have only had success defensively in games against Colorado (93rd nationally in passing offense), Florida International (97th) and Louisiana Tech (101st).</p><p>Last season, on the way to being crowned Orange Bowl champions, the Jayhawks appeared to have improved against the pass. They finished the year ranked 49th in the country and gave up just 222 yards per game. But Young admits that those numbers were skewed because the Jayhawks drew a schedule packed with teams who weren&#8217;t prolific passing the ball &#8212; a schedule minus Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas.</p><p>&#8220;That was our Achilles heel,&#8221; Young said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why when we played Missouri, we struggled. We struggled against teams that can really throw the football. When people spread you out and throw the football, you get people on air. When you get people on air, their athleticism shows up. You can only scheme so much.&#8221;</p><p>It won&#8217;t get much easier the rest of the way for Bowen, a Lawrence native who lettered at KU from 1992-93 and has coached at his alma mater since joining the staff as a graduate assistant in &#8217;99. The Jayhawks face Kansas State (13th nationally in passing offense), Nebraska (12th), Texas (11th) and Missouri (4th), so they will be &#8220;on air&#8221; constantly the next four weeks.</p><p>But KU&#8217;s players aren&#8217;t showing any panic, taking a cue from their first-year defensive coordinator who told them to &#8220;trash&#8221; the memories from Texas Tech.</p><p>&#8220;Fans don&#8217;t know Coach Bowen,&#8221; Mortensen said. &#8220;They don&#8217;t know all he&#8217;s done for us. I&#8217;ll tell you right now: I&#8217;m glad we have him as a coach. He&#8217;s a great players&#8217; coach, and I know he&#8217;s going to be a great defensive coordinator.&#8221;