Why KU Jayhawks football’s loss to Iowa State isn’t as important as what’s next
Ultimately, no one knows whether coach Lance Leipold will work out at Kansas or not.
One of the big reasons athletic director Travis Goff hired him, though, was clearly on display in a tiny, all-white-walled press conference room following KU’s 59-7 loss to Iowa State on Saturday night.
This result, to put it simply, was a disaster. KU trailed 28-0 in the first quarter. At one point, Iowa State’s quarterback had four touchdown passes and no incompletions.
Perhaps this was most telling: In the 101-year history of these two schools playing, Iowa State had never scored more points against KU than the 59 it did Saturday night.
“Obviously they jumped on us quickly,” Leipold said, “and there’s some things that we didn’t respond to.”
Take a step back, though, and all of that’s not really the point.
This type of result was going to happen to KU at some point this season. The Jayhawks are outmatched physically, out-talented defensively and have been trying to outrun an hourglass for weeks after cramming months’-worth of installation into August practices following Leipold’s hiring in April.
The reality: Each of KU’s previous four coaches have faced this exact moment. What, exactly, do you do after you get your teeth kicked in?
Leipold answered that question calmly and matter-of-factly during his nine-minute media session: KU’s coaches were going to stay the course.
He told his players the same afterward as well.
“(I said) that I still love them. That I still care, and we’re not going to change what we’re doing,” Leipold said. “We’re going to keep demanding the little things to be done right. We’re going to keep coaching them, and we’re going to keep getting better.”
Earlier in Leipold’s career, the 57-year-old might not have answered this question the same.
Perhaps if he was at Wisconsin-Whitewater 15 years ago, a rare loss would’ve triggered endless self-evaluation. If this were Buffalo — when he hadn’t won yet at the Division I level — perhaps Leipold would begin to question his own methods, wondering whether he’d been doing things the right way all along.
KU’s recent coaching history, if you look closely, has been littered with some second-guessers — guys whose learning on the job led to tinkering and assistant coaching shifts and an overall lack of stability once the program’s tectonic plates started to shift.
Leipold, at this point in his career, is not that guy — something Goff had to have considered. Leipold is comfortable in his own skin and confident that his stuff works, even if this current version of the Jayhawks have found ways to test even the most optimistic of dreamers.
An example of what’s next: Leipold talking about his team’s bye week. Coaches discussed all they’d like to accomplish before the Iowa State game took place, which included working on fundamentals, recruiting and getting more young players reps.
And after a 59-7 loss? That’s still what’s going to happen this next week.
“You don’t coach mad. You look at some different things that you can do to improve on, but it isn’t like you’re going to drastically change everything you do, because otherwise, you’re just grasping at straws,” Leipold said. “And like I said, we believe in what we do. And then just like I said on and off the field with them, we’re just going to keep pounding away at it.”
Some hope could be found on the sideline across from the Jayhawks.
From 2013-16, Iowa State went 3-9, 2-10, 3-9 and 3-9. Coach Matt Campbell — considered one of the stars in the industry — went 3-9 during his first season in Ames before leading the Cyclones to four consecutive bowl appearances.
Leipold said he spoke to Campbell before the game, saying Iowa State’s coach — after watching film — drew parallels between KU now and the three-win Cyclones team he inherited in 2016.
“I have, like I said before, a lot of respect for him and take him at his word for that,” Leipold said. “Hopefully there will be a day that we look back at this one as a big growing moment.”
Until then, Leipold will go back to the routine. He said he’d take notes on the bus ride home about what he saw from Iowa State’s program and the kind of model it might be for KU.
The Jayhawks, though, aren’t going to veer off course because of one embarrassing result.
And they aren’t going to abandon the process because things didn’t go their way Saturday.
“We are going to continue to work and address the things that we have to get better daily and find ways to improve — some way, somehow — each and every day,” Leipold said. “That’s all I can ask.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why KU Jayhawks football’s loss to Iowa State isn’t as important as what’s next."
