Five noteworthy things KU Jayhawks football’s Lance Leipold said at Big 12 Media Days
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold addressed reporters via Zoom during the annual Big 12 football Media Days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Thursday after KU’s plane was grounded in Topeka because of inclement weather.
Here are five noteworthy things he discussed.
Early QB talk
Leipold was asked about his first impressions of North Texas transfer quarterback Jason Bean — he arrived in Lawrence this summer — and about the quarterback competition in general.
The new KU coach didn’t commit to any player being the front-runner at that position as of yet.
“I’m excited about all our quarterbacks, and we have quite a few in camp,” Leipold said. “ ... One of the things that we want within our program is the culture of competition, and our players know they’re going to go out each and every day to compete.”
Leipold said, because he arrived at his new position after spring ball, that evaluation of players like Bean, Jalon Daniels and Miles Kendrick will take place in August practices.
“We do feel that our practice model’s going to give us a great opportunity to evaluate and make decisions,” Leipold said, “but we all know we’ll have to do so in a fairly fast period of time.”
Emphasis re-emphasized
Leipold spoke often in his May 3 introductory news conference about the importance of continuity, and he reiterated those thoughts Thursday.
“I think the stability and consistency within our staff that we’ve been able to have at both those previous stops (Wisconsin-Whitewater and Buffalo) have been very impactful to our young men, that they have the same voice within the same schemes and doing the same things that give them the best chance to be successful and continue to build and get better daily when they have the same consistent message,” Leipold said. “Right now we’re walking through some situations where a guy’s on his fourth position coach, and that’s hard to build consistency when things are starting over.
“So, again, that’s going to be a plan, and I’m very confident that we’ll be able to do that with our staff’s ability.”
The big one
Leipold’s Thursday news conference opened with a question that will be central to his KU tenure: What will it take to get KU football going again?
Perhaps not surprisingly, Leipold spoke first about there being no quick fixes in college football program-building.
“Our expectation will be very similar to other places that we’ve been: It’s that we’re going to expect, and I want our players to continue to work on daily improvement,” Leipold said. “We have to be a program that’s going to take care of the finer points of the game, and continue to build consistency and confidence in each and every thing that we do.”
Leipold also said an important facet would be his staff striving to be consistent with its recruiting methods, which would start with a focus on local talent.
A higher level
When asked whether he believed his championship pedigree from previously coaching Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater could translate to Division I, Leipold first brought up some of his other assistant coaching experience at the higher levels. That included previous stops as an assistant under Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin and Frank Solich at Nebraska.
Leipold also referenced another Big 12 colleague with previous Division III coaching success: Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, who was the offensive coordinator for Mount Union in 2005-06.
“From his background and everything that he does — and congratulations to him — there’s many of those things that can be looked upon that we should be looking to install and probably will into our program,” Leipold said. “And whether that’s Div. III mentality, or just going through things, we’ll use all resources that we can to build this program the right way.”
Love for Logan
Leipold spoke especially highly of safety Kenny Logan, calling him “a leader of the defense.”
Logan, along with receiver Kwamie Lassiter, was set to be a KU player representative at Thursday’s Big 12 Media Days. Leipold also is a fan of Logan’s persona, saying he has “a lot of charisma to him.”
“Kenny was one of the first ones to come into my office when I was appointed head coach, and he’s a daily visitor,” Leipold said. “I just think it’s so many ways he is impactful, not just to our defense, our program and really he can be for our athletic department and who he is with that personality. I can’t wait to see him on the field and get a chance to work with him in those regards in the upcoming weeks.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Five noteworthy things KU Jayhawks football’s Lance Leipold said at Big 12 Media Days."
