Kansas football coach Lance Leipold has late-March spring ball update
Check out everything Kansas football coach Lance Leipold had to say Saturday as the Jayhawks continued to make their way through spring ball.
LAWRENCE — Kansas football head coach Lance Leipold is hoping for a good crowd and nice weather Saturday when his team holds a fan appreciation day during spring ball.
Although the original intention was to hold a spring showcase, as they’ve done in past years, it turned out the logistics of using Rock Chalk Park when desired weren’t going to allow that to take place. So Leipold, who took responsibility for not evaluating that possibility enough, had his program pivot. This new event will take place at the Murfin Family Practice Field, next to the ongoing renovation at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, with gates opening at 9:45 a.m. and practice lasting from about 10 a.m. to noon in Lawrence.
But as Leipold talked about the move, the discussion led to a larger conversation about the state of spring games in college football — which KU has not truly held during Leipold’s tenure at this Division I institution. Although Leipold doesn’t know what the future of springs will look like in the sport, he highlighted there are discussions about how an offseason might look — including the possibility of playing outside competition. Regarding the latter point, Leipold, who said he had fall camp scrimmages while being a Division III coach, would value the chance to evaluate his team against another but pointed to potential hurdles that might need to be overcome.
“Any time you can go against somebody else, it’s always good,” said Leipold, who also appeared to allude to a concern about the travel demands this would require. “But I’ve also heard that there’s things that — are you going to be able to keep a good balance of practicing and evaluating your roster, or are we being evaluated by the outside and our bosses on how we play in spring games as well? I know that’s a concern of some people. So, it’s a lot there. We could see where it’s at. I think as we continue to change in college football, I don’t think anything’s ever off the table.”
Kansas is coming off a 2024 season in which it finished 5-7 overall and 4-5 against the Big 12 Conference. It was a disappointing finish for a Jayhawks squad that had goals of competing for a Big 12 championship last year. Although Leipold and company rebounded from a rough start, its resurgence didn’t prove to be enough to reach a third-straight bowl game.
Kansas has a lot to handle this spring, as it brings in numerous new players and seeks to replace so much production from this past fall. It also will have two new lead coordinators in offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski and defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald. Having quarterback Jalon Daniels back for another season will help give the team confidence ahead of this upcoming fall, but he’s also recovering from injury and that rehabilitation process still needs to completely unfold.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
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