We don't have the players to compete at an elite level. We do have enough players that they shouldn't even need coaching to beat Kansas' backup QB and walk-on receivers. They should literally be able to go out there and come up with a rudimentary play in the huddle like it's playground football and beat that team. The coaches are doing a bad job. Getting the players to buy in and give a shit is a crucial part of what a coach does. When your players are checked out and do not give a shit, you are failing at your job as a coach. Maybe doing that here with these players is harder than it would be somewhere else with different players, but this is the job Steve Sarkisian accepted and he's not doing well at it so far.
And realistically Sark does not have time to do a tear down and a 4 year rebuild from the ground up. I don't think this program really was in a place where that should have been necessary when he got here, I don't think that's what he set out to do, but that's the job he's setting before himself. If he wants to have success here he will have to find a way to take the football players he has and turn them into a football team that is vastly better than motherfucking Kansas.