Lance Leipold deserves plenty of credit for dragging Kansas football out of the mud.
When he arrived in 2021, the program was coming off a brutal 10-year run from 2010 to 2020, a stretch marked by bad coaching hires, an embattled athletics administration and far more low points than high ones. Leipold, along with University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod and KU Athletics Director Travis Goff, helped steer the Jayhawks back toward respectability, snapped some ugly losing streaks and played a role in landing a much-needed new football stadium.
That was the job then. The question now is whether he’s still the right man for it.
Friday night’s disappointing loss to Missouri only sharpened that debate. Kansas has had its moments under Leipold - the dramatic win in Austin in 2021, the upset of No.
6 Oklahoma at home in 2023 and the program’s seventh bowl win in school history in the 2023 Guaranteed Rate Bowl all stand out. But those victories often came when expectations were light and pressure was lower.
When the stakes have been highest, the Jayhawks have too often come up short.
Since the start of the 2024 season, Kansas is 2-10 in one-score games. In rivalry games under Leipold, the Jayhawks are 0-7, including five straight losses to Kansas State and two straight defeats against Missouri after the Border War resumed following a break since 2011.
One of the clearest examples came on Oct. 8, 2022, when Kansas hosted its first-ever ESPN College GameDay ahead of a matchup with No. 17 TCU.
The Jayhawks were 5-0 and ranked No. 19, with the biggest regular-season spotlight they’d had in years. They lost 38-31.
That’s become the frustrating pattern: Leipold has delivered when there’s little to lose, but Kansas has stumbled when there’s everything to gain.
Some of that comes down to how the roster has been built and how the team has been coached. Losing a close game to a good opponent is one thing. Looking outmatched in talent and preparation is another, and that has shown up in several of these marquee games.
Leipold owns that. He’s in charge of the roster, the staff and the key decisions on game day.
His hire of Jeff Grimes as offensive coordinator after Andy Kotelnicki left for Penn State was a major miss, and it cost Kansas a chance to fully capitalize on what looked like a special 2024 setup with Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal and a talented roster. His December 2024 promotion of D.K. McDonald to defensive coordinator also remains in question after Kansas finished No. 12 in the Big 12 in scoring defense at 26.8 points per game, allowed 387.2 yards per game, ranked No. 11 in the league in that category and gave up nearly six yards per play at 5.9.
The other reality is that getting talent is no longer the obstacle it once was. The transfer portal, upgraded facilities and the new stadium have changed that. Kansas now has some of the best facilities in the Big 12, plus contract extensions, a bigger assistant salary pool and NIL commitments.
In other words, Leipold has been given a lot to work with. And for a fan base that measures success by reaching six or more wins, that means the bar is not especially high.
Still, it is the bar Leipold helped establish. If Kansas misses bowl eligibility for a third straight season, the question gets louder: can this program ever get there with him leading it?
Leipold brought Kansas out of despair. The harder part may be proving he can take it any further.
In Other News...
Kansas Defense Has A Familiar Problem Fans Are Tired Of
Kansas looked settled on defense for a half against Missouri, and for a while it seemed the Jayhawks might be in position to keep the Border War tight into the fourth quarter. Trey Lathan was active from the middle of the field with nine tackles, and Leroy Harris III gave the unit a lift with a blocked field goal and a forced fumble, the kind of plays that usually travel well even when the offense is still searching for rhythm.
The problem, as Kansas fans know too well, was what happened after halftime. Missouri found answers quickly, the Jayhawks lost control of the game and the Tigers rolled to a 38-21 win, piling up points behind Austin Simmons passing and Jamal Roberts running while Kansas defense faded from the standard it had set earlier. It was a familiar pattern for a group that can flash in stretches but still leaves too much of the game hanging once opponents make their adjustments. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Let Border Showdown Slip Away For One Frustrating Reason
Kansas went into the border showdown needing cleaner execution than it got, and the 38-21 loss to Missouri left the Jayhawks chasing the game for much of the afternoon. Isaiah Marshall had moments through the air, but the offense never found a steady rhythm, the run game stayed bottled up and the Tigers were able to keep Kansas under pressure long enough to separate.
Head coach Lance Leipold pointed to the defensive effort as a unit that gave his team a chance to hang around, even if the game kept putting that group in difficult spots. For a Kansas team that wanted this rivalry game to be a statement, the frustration was less about one bad stretch than the feeling that too many small breakdowns added up at the wrong time. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Left Missouri With An Offensive Problem It Must Fix Fast
Kansas came out of the Border War with more questions than answers in the run game, and that is not the sort of problem a staff can ignore for long. The Jayhawks never found much traction against Missouri, leaning on a ground attack that stalled out too often and left the offense without the balance it needed to stay on schedule.
Isaiah Marshall led Kansas with 23 rushing yards, while Dylan Edwards added 39 on six carries, but the bigger issue was collective rather than individual. Missouris rushing success set the tone on the other side, giving the Tigers a physical edge Kansas will need to address quickly if it wants its offense to look more complete in the weeks ahead. [Read more 🡒]