Kansas walked into Big 12 Football Media Days with a familiar problem hanging over the program: nobody is lining up to believe in the Jayhawks yet.
That’s the reality for Lance Leipold entering his sixth season, with Kansas again projected around the bottom of the league at 5.5 wins after back-to-back 5-7 finishes. The message from Frisco, Texas, wasn’t flashy, but it was clear enough.
Kansas has to finish games. Until that changes, the outside world is going to keep waiting.
Leipold handled his 15-minute panel the way he usually does - steady, direct and comfortable in front of a microphone. But this year carries a different kind of spotlight, mostly because of the Union Jack Classic against Arizona State in London, a game that stands out on the schedule alongside the rivalry trips to Kansas State and Missouri in Lawrence.
That London matchup is the kind of stage Kansas could barely have imagined six years ago, back when the program was still a punchline before the transfer portal era. Leipold changed the tone quickly, guiding the Jayhawks to a 6-7 finish in Year 2 with a patchwork roster that included Devin Neal as a freshman. Five years later, Kansas has only one bowl win to show for it, and the task now is simpler to say than to do: give people a reason to keep watching.
The London game is the biggest swing on the calendar, and Leipold knows it. A win there could give Kansas a real jolt.
A loss on that kind of national stage would land hard, especially with the way the game could shape perceptions of Leipold’s future in 2027 and beyond. Arizona State will be part of that conversation too, and the matchup got a little more edge this offseason when safety Lyrik Rawls left Kansas for Tempe.
Leipold said the game serves the conference, and he also pointed to the opportunity it creates for his players.
“I think it’s unity for both programs, for this conference,” Leipold said. “It does have its challenges, but when (Brett Yormark) brought this opportunity to us, first of all, it’s giving up a home game, we’re in phase 2 of our stadium renovation and we’re at a reduced capacity, so that was part of the formula… We’re still about student-athlete experience, and I think we’re offering an opportunity for our student-athletes to have a once in a lifetime experience to go over there and play a football game.”
He also leaned into the Big 12’s unpredictability, and the examples he used were hard to ignore.
“The one thing about the parity in this conference that kind of goes through with the balance is we’ve seen the years - the 2021 season, where was Baylor before they won the league in the preseason?,” Leipold said. “TCU was probably more the middle of the pack the year they went to the playoffs.
Arizona State was picked at the bottom or near the bottom the year Kenny (Dillingham) took them to the playoffs. There’s a lot of things that can happen in this (league).”
Kansas will need some of that chaos to break its way, because Leipold is working with a roster that has plenty of turnover. The Jayhawks lost players they would have liked to keep, including Rawls, Dean Miller and David McComb. But they also held onto linebacker Trey Lathan, last season’s leading tackler, and added Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards to a running back room with some upside.
Leipold sounded encouraged by the way the depth chart is shaping up, especially with the gaps between players shrinking.
“From the first guy that steps on the field to the next guy, the gap there’s the least its ever been in our time,” Leipold said of his current depth chart on Wednesday in Texas.
The offense will be rebuilt around Andy Kotelnicki, who is back in the offensive coordinator’s chair after returning from Penn State. He’ll be sorting through three quarterback options - Cole Ballard, Rice transfer Chase Jenkins and Isaiah Marshall - now that Jalon Daniels is gone. The offensive line also has to hold up its end, with Texas transfer Connor Stroh and returning tackle Calvin Clements expected to matter.
On the other side, D.K. McDonald has the job of repairing a defense that was among the league’s worst a year ago.
Kansas added help through the portal, including nose tackle Tre’von McAlpine from Tulane and safety Corey Gordon from Georgia. Austin Alexander and Jalen Todd will need to make an impact at corner and help generate takeaways, something the Jayhawks didn’t get nearly enough of last season.
This isn’t a roster built around a pile of stars, and Leipold doesn’t pretend otherwise. That’s never really been the point.
“I’ll give you five years in the NFL, I’ll give you a five-year career, the odds are don’t have enough money to live the rest of your life and B, you better find something else to do and you won’t even be 30 years old yet,” Leipold said. “You better have some other things to fall back on, and we try to emphasize that daily in our program.”
For Kansas, the coming season is still hard to pin down. The Jayhawks could be a team that wins enough to matter, or one that just competes without crossing the line. Either way, after the last decade, plenty of fans would take either version in a heartbeat.
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