David Beaty will take time with rest of KU football staff after retaining Clint Bowen

New Kansas football coach David Beaty calls Clint Bowen one of the “finest defensive minds in this country.” But he also calls him a “dear friend,” which is why Beaty was elated when Bowen, the Jayhawks’ former interim coach, decided to stay on as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.

Bowen, a KU grad who will work under his fifth head coach at KU, previously served as defensive coordinator under Charlie Weis.

“Not only do I believe in what he does, I believe in his production,” Beaty said. “And I’ve seen with my own eyes what he’s capable of doing, and he was a key piece to us moving forward here and being able to achieve what we wanted to achieve.”

Bowen interviewed for the job, but when Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger and the search committee settled on Beaty, Zenger said it was personally important to him that Bowen remained at KU.

“That was something for me personally,” Zenger said. “I very much wanted it to happen.”

Running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell is expected to remain on KU’s staff as well. Other than Bowen, Mitchell is the only coach from Weis’ staff to still be out on the road recruiting for Kansas, according to Rivals.com.

“I will tell you that we’re not in any hurry there,” Beaty said. “The key is the right men; not men, but the right men, the right people to get here to help our men achieve what they want. So that’s going to be of utmost importance.

For now, Beaty said his eye is purely on recruiting. The Jayhawks have a final weekend to recruit before a long dead period in December and early January.

“My focus when I leave here today is focused on going on and doing a great job of identifying the men that we’ve got to close this class out with,” Beaty said. “The men that are going to help us create that program that we talked about.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 6:33 PM with the headline "David Beaty will take time with rest of KU football staff after retaining Clint Bowen."