Lance Leipold Blasts Big 12 for Mishandling Texas Tech Fan Incident

Regardless of which team you were rooting for during Saturday's contest between Kansas and Texas Tech, the electric atmosphere in Lubbock was undeniable.

Red Raider fans packed Jones AT&T Stadium for the school's Big 12 home opener and kept the Jayhawks rattled all night.

A longstanding Texas Tech tradition involves fans throwing tortillas into the air during kickoffs, and they didn't hold back against KU. After being issued a warning in the first quarter, officials eventually flagged the Red Raiders twice for unsportsmanlike conduct, assessing a pair of 15-yard penalties later in the game when more tortillas hit the field.

However, Lance Leipold wasn't as worried about that particular issue in his postgame press conference. Instead, he expressed serious concern over a separate incident when one of Kansas' staff members was reportedly struck by a pocket knife thrown from the stands during the third quarter.

"Say what it is, a pocket knife was thrown and hit one of our staff members. It's ridiculous," Leipold said. "It's supposed to be for safety and things like that. It's a culture that's been accepted to a point, and it hasn't changed. Eventually, someone is going to be seriously hurt, unfortunately."

There is no video evidence of the staff member getting hit yet, but if this were to be true, it would be extremely troubling. It is also a very serious accusation for Leipold to make, so one would have to imagine there is some truth to it.

"Very poorly," Leipold stated when asked how the officials handled the situation. "Our conference office and Scott Draper were very poor at handling it. They said one of the officials almost got hit and tried to throw a flag, and it got picked up. So that was disappointing."

"We have a policy put in that wasn't followed through. I was very disappointed on how that was [handled]. Obviously, they have a great crowd, they really get into it and do some things, but I know the officials were just as frustrated after the one penalty was picked up by whatever they call 'The Rock,' wherever that is."

Here's Lance Leipold upset with the Big 12 about its handling of the thrown tortillas... and the pocket knife

video via @HenryGreenstein. Link below. pic.twitter.com/DxNMMMDwxX
— Mike Vernon (@M_Vernon) October 12, 2025

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire also expressed his displeasure with how some of the Red Raider fans went about their business following his team's win.

"Is that a Red Raider?" McGuire said about TTU fans at the game. "You came to the game and you love this team and you’re passionate about this team, but yet you’re going to throw another tortilla and you know it’s against the rules?"

The Big 12 passed a rule this offseason that disciplines home teams for throwing objects on the field, and Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt was unsurprisingly the lone dissenting vote in a 15-1 decision. Officials must issue a warning to the crowd first, which essentially gives fans a little leeway with one free pass during the opening kickoff.

More information will likely come out about this report soon.