Weis was supposed to be a QB fixer, and all he gave KU fans was lemon after lemon

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Quarterback Whisperer could not, confoundingly, get quarterback even remotely right. Charlie Weis was probably never going to bring a big winner to Kansas -- and that's a KU problem, not a Weis problem, which we'll circle back to -- but he was, at the least, offering the hope, the potential, of aerial duels, never-say-die offensive shootouts and the kind of program that would pass first and ask questions later. A more acerbic Texas Tech, if you like.

Instead, the man who helped make Tom Brady and Brady Quinn rich gave us:

-- Dayne Crist, the next Russell Wilson, a transfer from Weis' Irish days. One season, 47.7 completion percentage, four touchdowns, nine interceptions.

-- Jake Heaps, the next attempt at Russell Wilson, a transfer from BYU. One season, 49.0 completion percentage, 1,414 yards, eight touchdowns, 10 interceptions.

-- Montell Cozart, an attempt not to do a Russell Wilson at all, a local kid with good wheels from Bishop Miege. So far, a 50.4 completion percentage, five touchdowns, seven interceptions.

To put it another way, Weis' three starting quarterbacks have thrown for 3,378 yards, combined, for the Jayhawks since 2012. Todd Reesing threw for 3,486 yards, all by himself, as a sophomore at KU in 2007.

When Jayhawks athletic director Sheahon Zenger hired Weis, the locals were promised Don Rickles meets Bill Walsh.

All they got was Rickles.

Lookin' good! Check out our gallery of Big 12 cheerleaders.

The Big 12 is the Pac-12 of the Plains, a quarterback paradise. In 2013, Kansas failed to record a single touchdown pass to a wide receiver.

The final straw was a 23-0 home loss to Texas on Saturday, although, in hindsight, the straws had been lining up for weeks before that. Cozart threw four interceptions against the Longhorns, and the Jayhawks were held to seven points or fewer for the sixth time in Weis' 26 games as coach. On Sunday morning, after a 6-22 run, one win in 19 league tilts and a 41-3 loss at Duke on Sept. 13 still fresh in his mind, Zenger pulled the plug.

"I normally do not favor changing coaches midseason," the athletic director said via a statement. "But I believe we have talented coaches and players in this program, and I think this decision gives our players the best chance to begin making progress right away."

So Clint Bowen, a KU alum and defensive coordinator, gets the keys, and an open audition to try and see the rest of the schedule out. According to stat guru Kenneth Massey's excellent statistical projections site, the Jayhawks' next best shot at a win -- and maybe their only shot -- is versus Iowa State on Nov. 8, with the "chance" of victory at 24 percent. And with former KU head coach Mark Mangino pushing the buttons as the Cyclones' offensive coordinator, the chances of a win, in reality, might be a whole hell of a lot less than that.

You would think the next guy in the chair will be young and plucky, whether that's Bowen, or the oft-cited Brent Venables or Jim Leavitt or someone else. Zenger tried the salty-veteran route, only to find that Weis' best work was well behind him, and that helping to turn Matt Cassel and the Kansas City Chiefs' offense around in 2010 as offensive coordinator might have been the big man's last, great hurrah. A 2011 stint at Florida didn't exactly turn heads, but what Zenger said after hiring Weis, who'd already left Notre Dame in tatters, most certainly did:

"I set out to find the best," the administrator declared, "and I found Charlie Weis."

Actually, you set out to find the best, and you settled.

Weis offered noble intentions, at least publicly. He vowed to remove bad apples, to emphasize character and academics; KU's collective GPA reportedly rose from a 2.4 to 3.0 in his first semester on the job.

There were a lot of factors in play here, most of them damning. Weis ran off almost 30 players right from the get-go, although that's not uncommon during a regime change. Then, while talking about citizenship and academics, he brought aboard 17 junior-college transfers as part of his Class of 2013; as of Sunday, only nine remained. Highly touted (and troubled) defensive end Chris Martin was arrested in connection with armed robbery in May 2013 and never saw the field. Neither did Marquel Combs, a juco defensive tackle who made a pit stop with the Jayhawks before landing at Southeastern Louisiana.

Attendance got a little spike from the honeymoon period of Weis' first season, only to sink right back down again. The Jayhawks drew 43,867 for the coach's Big 12 debut, a 20-6 loss to TCU at Memorial Stadium in September 2012, but have seen a crowd as high as 42,000 for only one other league game since.

"I appreciate what Coach Weis did with several facets of our football program," Zenger's statement continued. "But we have not made the on-the-field progress we believe we should."

In the end, Weis was probably sunk -- on the field, at least -- by what happened under center. Or, more to the point, what didn't. Seth Russell, a strong-armed prep out of Garland, Texas, had committed to KU the summer before his senior season of 2011. But then-coach Turner Gill was let go, Weis came aboard, and he reportedly made it clear that his former signal-caller at Notre Dame, Crist, was on his way. Russell didn't like what he saw, and landed at Baylor instead.

Over the last two seasons as Bryce Petty's backup, Russell has thrown for 1,074 yards and 10 touchdowns and four interceptions. In that same span, Weis' two starters, Heaps -- who high-tailed it to Miami (Fla.) after just one 3-9 campaign -- and Cozart combined for 2,065 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

And here's the kicker: Russell's five touchdown throws on Sept. 6 in a 70-6 win over Northwestern State were as many in one game as Cozart has tossed over an entire season.

Weis famously stood before fans last month and asked them to "give me September." Apparently, that was all Zenger was willing to give him, too.

Uncle Charlie said funny things. Frank things. We loved that. He also said really dumb things, too, such as how Duke was a "good matchup" and, during the postgame on Saturday, how "stats are for losers."

You betcha, champ. And points are for winners.

You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.