Weis readies to turn around football woes

Coach Charlie Weis looks over some plays during the spring game at Memorial Stadium Saturday afternoon. -Tara Bryant

With the month of August now in progress, Charlie Weis, Kansas head coach, is ready to get fall camp underway and prepare for the season in exactly a month at home against South Dakota State.

Weis held his Aug. 1 press conference at the Anderson Family Football Complex to address the media with a month away from kickoff.

A new era has officially begun for the Jayhawks football program under Weis. He is ready to make the most of his second chance as a head coach and wants to help rebuild Kansas. But he knows that the Jayhawks have to be more focused and not afford the losses that they gave up.

“If you look at it, [Kansas] won two last year,” Weis said. “I was really disappointed when I went back and watched the games last year and the number of games that they just got the crap kicked out of.”

Weis has been active in the state of Kansas since being hired as head coach, trying to promote his football team for the upcoming season. He knows fans were not thrilled with last year’s output and wants to bring some optimism back to the fan base.

“If I was one of those fans, I would have left at halftime and not come back myself,” he said. “I’d like the fans to be there at the end of the game. When fans are there at the end, that usually means you are doing things the right way.”

Weis is driven to put Kansas in a direction where they will perform better. His hope is to prove that they can improve this season, despite being ranked last in the Big 12 preseason poll.

“I can’t see why they wouldn’t pick us last. The jury is still out. We’re going to have to go out and prove it.”

As fall camp begins, Weis made it clear that he is ready to start coaching while patiently waiting for Sept. 1.

“I’ve been antsy to get back to work. It’s time to go to work.”

• Updated Aug. 1, 2012 at 10:57 pm