Kansas Head Coach Lance Leipold on Getting the Jayhawks Back in the Big 12 Title Race

Brian Fisher here at Big 12 Media Days for Sports Illustrated joined now by Kansas head coach Lance Leipold.

Lance, thank you so much for stopping by, and it always seems like an exciting time to be here at Big 12 Media Days.

Well, it's great to be with you again.

It's, yeah, it's, that time of year when you get the juices flowing, you get everybody around, you know, the season's right around the corner.

It's Definitely an exciting day.

When you, when you look back over these last couple of months , how do you feel like your team has kind of come together?

I've really, I've really been impressed, and I've enjoyed watching the process to, you know, kind of unfold as we continue to.

To grow and get better as we go through it, added a lot of new players.

And honestly, I thought there would probably be a few growing pains with that bumps in the road, but they've embraced it.

They've embraced our way of doing things.

It's been very competitive and we continue to grow and get better each day.

You can definitely see some progress those first couple of years, maybe a step back last year.

How do you kind of deal with those expectations change?

Yeah, you know, it's, you know, the last two seasons at 5 and 7 have been disappointing because We've had some opportunities in some close games that we haven't quite, uh, you know, finished the way we needed to late in the game or some other opportunities that have left slipped by.

That's college football though, as we know, you can make those things happen.

We've got to find a way to turn the tables and get those back.

Um, but as you said, expectations have definitely changed at the University of Kansas as far as its football program goes, and, and we need to embrace that and be proud of that.

But now it's time for us to take a step and put the, put our.

Ourselves back in a competitive situation to be involved in conference championship game type type conversations, be a bowl participant, do all those type of things, and hopefully find our way into the playoffs.

And that's just, I mean, the nature of the Big 12 almost coming down to a lot of those 4th quarters.

It is, and, and that's, as you know, it makes this league so special is, is really the closeness really from 1 to 16 sometimes on what, what can, what can transpire and, and you see.

That at many different times and for us we've got to be able to understand that and be ready to go each and every week.

And I think again it makes this league probably maybe a little bit different than some of the others.

A couple of weeks from fall camp, where do you feel good about your team?

Where do you still want to have some questions answered?

You know , I like our depth.

I really do.

I know we have a quarterback battle.

I feel, you know, everyone, you know, on the outside probably has more, more questions and And, and probably, um , not as much confidence as we do internally in the, in, in the people that we have and where it's gonna be.

They're great leaders, they're great young men.

They just, you know, we had somebody like Jalen Daniels in the program as long, who played 24 straight games the last two years.

And, uh, so, we'll be exciting to see where those guys go.

I like the depth of our football team.

I like, uh, I like the backs we have in our backfield and, and, and the additions we've made at receiver.

And, you know, we're still, you know, our safety positions.

It's gonna be very competitive, and it's probably one that we're gonna need to solidify that allows our guys to, to really fulfill what we need to do defensively because that is such an important communication position for us that, uh, we need to improve.

The depth at linebacker is better.

We're deeper in the front, uh, in the front.

And those are things that as we go through 12 games or, or a, a tight 4 quarter game is going to be needed that we, we can, you know, spell guys, use the depth, and be able.

To play our best when it's needed.

You mentioned Jalen there.

He was, he was such a leader for you guys on and off the field.

How, how tough is he going to be to replace?

Well, like somebody said to me, uh, this might be the first time I've come to one of these without him, you know.

So, it's, uh, you know, and he was, um, you know, such a valuable leader for us.

But like I said, the two guys that we have in Isaiah Marshall and Cole Ballard, they're, they're special guys.

And, and Jalen, as he went through things, he had some cleanup surgeries and things.

He never went through a spring practice fully with us.

Well, when he wasn't going through it, these two guys were getting all the reps.

So they have a lot of reps in there.

And now with Andy Kolnicky coming back, yeah, there's been some tweaks in what we're doing, but they have a good understanding of what we do and how we do it and why we do it.

And again, uh, that's what's really gonna be exciting.

How have you kind of adjusted in terms of, look, it, it's a different landscape out there in terms of having a number attached to your roster.

That, that's certainly changing, but also, we, we've seen the eligibility changes, and I know you, you guys focus a lot in terms of your development of guys.

How do you kind of approach that outlook a little bit differently?

Well, again, you know, we want to continue, you know, to be a developmental program, but sometimes you find out when you use the word development, a lot of guys view that as playing time, you know, and what is true development, and, and, and we deal in a society where we're not very patient, and sometimes to, to, to continue to balance that with young men is a process to educate them that it's not always going to happen overnight, but we want to balance the 5 for 5.

will be good.

If there's any changes to how many times you can transfer, I think between that and, and, and if we're, we're gonna get to some caps of what spending can be, I think it's gonna solidify and find a good niche of what we're all hoping for.

Give some freedom, compensate players, but also for everyone's sake, have some continuity.

And it's not always good to relocate all the time.

And hopefully, we can build that, that allows us to, to continue to grow.

Grow this game in a great parity and competitive way.

Before this past season, we probably would have circled you guys as as an example of a team that can kind of rise above their typical historical norm, right?

And now it's Indiana.

In this post Indiana winning a national title, do you kind of go to your boosters and say, hey, we can do that too?

Yeah, you know, I liked it because I think there's probably some similarities that we could eventually get to because obviously the basketball backgrounds of both universities is, is very prominent.

Um, and, uh, it's really a credit to what, you know, Coach Signnetti in Indiana has done.

Um, and of course, a lot of fan bases think everybody can do that, but, but there's a lot of things that go into that, and you say going to your boosters, to making sure that, uh, you, you don't have to be at the top, but you, you, you gotta be in that, that upper echelon to be able to go through and do what they've been doing.

And they kind of did it pretty much under the radar, even in those regards as.

They, as they went through.

But yeah, it, I, I've said, whether it be Indiana or even look at our conference back in 21 when Baylor was picked to be down and won the league.

Arizona State was picked last in one league, ended up in the playoffs.

TCU the year they're in the playoffs, I think we're picked middle of the pack.

Anyone in this conference with, with, with the right circumstances has a chance to, to rise to the top.

Who's maybe a name that we don't know right now on your roster that we will come this fall.

You know, I don't know how much, you know, we're, we're really excited about Dylan Edwards coming into this program.

I think people know him.

Yassa Willis is the other running back from Syracuse.

He's a big power back.

I, I think he's gonna be a player that, that our fans will really enjoy watching him play and how he goes about it.

Leroy Harris and Trey Lathan are here, very impactful defensive guys for us as we continue to kind of work through that.

I'm curious, we'll end on this note.

It's been fun this summer seeing the World Cup kind of take over.

Kansas City, obviously hosting a lot of games, a lot of focus on Lawrence, given the nature of Algeria and the fans adopting.

I'm curious from your standpoint how you kind of saw everything.

Yeah, it's, you know, it really speaks again to what Lawrence, Kansas is about and how it embraces and why it's such a great community to live in and why we love living there as a family, why we think it's a great college town, because they do, when something happens, they get behind it and they can do it.

To see that happen, to see what it's done in Kansas City is really special.

And we know that if we can continue to do things around our fan base will be there as well.

But it's, it's been kind of neat.

It's been learning.

It's a sport I don't know very well and try to.

Kind of see it kind of take hold and, and again, our game in London is something that also I, I think is cutting edge, that just like with the World Cup coming here as much as it is, I think international things are going to keep happening as we continue to try to find ways to grow and find revenue streams.

Well, I'm I'm glad you mentioned the game in London.

You know, a lot of times those games are, you know, week 0, week 1.

Logistically, how difficult is it for you to get your hands around that?

Yeah, that was, uh, you know, there were some things there that, that were probably a little bit more challenging than than I thought we could, whether it'd been a week 0, I thought we could get a week 0 game and, and then try to get 2 byes as we went through.

We didn't get that, but it still was a great opportunity.

I still believe in student-athlete experience.

I think this will be on a trip of a lifetime that these guys will always remember.

Challenging, yes.

Um, you know, getting the game against Missouri on Friday night will help us a little bit, but again, there'll be a lot of things.

Logistically, our support staff and people have to do.

We have to be smart as we travel.

We need to be smart when we come back to refresh our team for a nine game run once that, once that open week is over.

But again, I, I think it is something that, um, you know, to , to be one of the first and the first in this conference to do will be exciting.

Yeah, not, not many American football coaches can say that they played at Wembley.

You will be one of them, Lance.

Thank you so much for stopping by here with Sports Illustrated.