Breaking: Beaty set to add DeForest to staff

Sources have told Jayhawk Slant that Kansas head coach David Beaty will hire Joe DeForest to coach special teams.

“This was a big hire for us because as much time as we spend on special teams we needed to perform better,” Kansas head coach David Beaty said.

DeForest was most recently the special teams coordinator at West Virginia. Over the last three years the Mountaineers have been number in the Big 12 in kick returns twice. They have been number one and number two in punting. In 2013 they were number two in the conference in kickoff coverage. In 2014 the place-kicking unit finished at the top of the conference going 47-for-47 in extra points.

In 2012 DeForest joined the West Virginia staff as the defensive coordinator before moving to special teams.

Before arriving at West Virginia he was the special teams coordinator and associate head coach at Oklahoma State under Les Miles and Mike Gundy. With DeForest leading the special teams the Cowboys went from 73rd in the nation to 10th in net punting, 67th to 12th in punt return average, and 92nd to third in kickoff returns.

He broke in as a special teams coordinator at Duke where the Blue Devils special teams ranked 6th in the country in net punting and 15th in kickoff returns.

DeForest also has a strong reputation as a recruiter in the Houston area as well as the state of Florida.