Kansas football is back at a familiar crossroads, and Lance Leipold is the coach standing in the middle of it.
After 10 weeks, the Jayhawks sit at 3-6, and the path to a bowl game has narrowed to almost nothing. Kansas has just three chances left to get to six wins, which means Leipold’s team would have to run the table against West Virginia, No. 9 BYU and Oklahoma State.
What makes the record sting even more is how close Kansas has been. The Jayhawks have let leads slip away against UCF, TCU and rival Kansas State. Win those games, and the conversation looks very different - Kansas would already be bowl-eligible and sitting at 6-3.
Instead, the program is once again staring at the possibility of a coaching change. Kansas has hired five different head coaches since 2010, and Leipold may be the next one under pressure.
The numbers behind his tenure are not helping his case. Leipold has spent five full seasons in Lawrence and is in the middle of his sixth. In that span, he is 30-40 overall and 17-33 in conference play.
If Kansas decides to move on after Dec. 1, 2026, the price tag would be steep. Leipold’s buyout would be $17.9 million, paid over 12 months on a monthly schedule. That kind of hit would land hard for KU Athletics, which is already working through a nearly $800 million construction project on a new football stadium.
And the bill would not stop with Leipold alone. If Kansas fires him, the school would also have to cover buyouts for his staff and pay the new contracts that come with a fresh coaching hire.
Kansas could keep Leipold in place to reduce the buyout or simply ride out the rest of the contract, but that does not guarantee the on-field results will improve. If the wins do not come, selling tickets becomes tougher, and that matters when the school is trying to help fund a new stadium.
It all adds up to a brutal spot for the Jayhawks. At some point, Kansas has to decide whether staying the course is worth it, or whether the program needs a new voice to try to restore a winning culture.
If the goal is to get football anywhere close to the level of success Kansas enjoys in basketball, the source of this article makes the case that change has to come now.
In Other News...
UCF Finally Ended Its Road Misery In A Wild Kansas Finish
UCF walked out of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium with a 33-32 win over Kansas, finally snapping a 12-game road losing streak in a game that swung back and forth until the final seconds. Alonza Barnett III delivered the decisive touchdown pass to Caden Piening with three seconds left, and Will Stone added the extra point to complete a finish that left the Jayhawks on the wrong end of a wild one.
For Kansas, the loss only added to the frustration of a game that featured multiple lead changes and plenty of momentum shifts before UCF seized it at the end. Josh Derry and Taevion Swint were among the Knights who made their presence felt, and the result gave UCF a badly needed breakthrough away from home while leaving plenty for Kansas to sort through after another tight finish slipped away. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Fans Have Seen This Late-Game Collapse Far Too Often
Kansas had clawed back into the game and put itself in position to escape with a road win, only to watch it slip away in the final seconds against UCF. The finish was as chaotic as it was painful, with multiple reviewed plays shaping the closing stretch before the Knights cashed in on a walk-off touchdown catch and the extra point that sent the Jayhawks home with a 33-32 loss.
For Lance Leipolds team, the result fit an all-too-familiar script. Kansas has now lived through too many late-game defeats under Leipold, and this one stung because the comeback was real, the margin was there, and the decisive play came after a sequence that already had the game teetering on the edge. Caden Piening delivered the touchdown that ended it, leaving Kansas with another reminder of how quickly a promising finish can unravel. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Has A Lance Leipold Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Kansas football keeps finding itself in the same painful spot, and the pattern is getting harder for fans to shrug off. Since the start of the 2024 season, the Jayhawks have lost 11 games in which they held a fourth-quarter lead, a stretch that has accounted for more than half of their total defeats over the past three seasons. For a program with enough talent to compete, the issue has become less about whether Kansas can build a lead and more about whether it can protect one.
Recent losses to UCF and TCU only sharpened the frustration, because they fit the same familiar script. Lance Leipold has continued to stress situational football in practice, but the results have not followed in the moments that matter most. Until Kansas starts turning those late-game lessons into actual wins, the conversation around this team is going to stay centered on the one problem fans cannot ignore. [Read more 🡒]