Kansas’ Lance Leipold Shares Thoughts About Re-Hiring Andy Kotelnicki

The Kansas football program had a very busy and meaningful offseason in 2026. In addition to a strong class in the transfer portal cycle, the Jayhawks brought back Andy Kotelnicki to the coaching staff following his brief stint in Happy Valley.

On Wednesday, head coach Lance Leipold spoke about the hiring for the first time since it was made official last month. He explained how the opportunity came about amid Penn State's new coaching search.

"As we progressed, just talking about kind of what was next to him, I kind of floated it out there that depending how things shook out, that I would be very interested in finding a role here for him," Leipold said. "Andy had a lot of opportunities, and I'll say it now, I'll say it again, that Andy Kotelnicki will be a head coach someday and probably someday soon. And he had opportunities to explore some of those again."

Kotelnicki has spent two decades in the coaching ranks, first making his name known at Wisconsin-River Falls and Wisconsin-Whitewater along with Leipold. He followed him to Buffalo and Kansas before eventually taking a job with the Nittany Lions after the 2023 season.

Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki during a practice session outside Holuba Hall on Saturday, August 2, 2025, in State College. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

During his tenure at KU, Kotelnicki guided one of the most explosive offenses in the country across his final two years at the school. The offense severely regressed once he left, which was a large reason why he was brought back, and Leipold said he needed him back to match the program's newer and loftier expectations.

"The thing that I’m excited about with Andy is this — people want to come back to Kansas," Leipold continued. "We walked into a program where people couldn't wait to get out of here fast enough. Also with that, we have changed the expectations in this program, and now they're harder to match. We have to match them, and we will match them. And we understand that part of that success has changed how we go about things."

Leipold also confirmed that Kotelnicki would be the offense's primary play-caller this upcoming season. Offensive gurus Matt Lubick and Jim Zebrowski will still have roles in decision-making, but Zebrowski will cede his play-calling duties to Kotelnicki after holding them for one season.

"Everybody has input and roles," Leipold said. "I think there’ll be definitive things that we’ll work on that. Matt will be heavily involved, and he has been since he was an analyst, our option game. Then Jim and Matt will be involved in red zone and things like that. But ultimate terminology, day-to-day things of where it's at, Andy will have the final say."

Kotelnicki also spoke to the media for a few minutes himself. The video can be viewed below:

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