Kansas football: Culture change in progress

The Kansas football program is in need of a culture change and they have the right staff in place to do it.

In speaking to the media earlier this week new head coach Lance Leipold said, “I think our culture, from the summer has been very important. Culture is how you go about it each and every day, what’s expected of you, how you go about your business.”

In the last ten years, Kansas has had five different head coaches–seven if you count the interim coaches. It makes it difficult to instill a culture change when there’s a lack of continuity within the staff.

But with Leipold Kansas gets a coach who values both consistency and continuity.

For instance, he brought his offensive coordinator of nine years and defensive coordinator of 15 years with him from Buffalo. Leipold describes his coordinators as, “Disciplined. Physical. Fundamentally sound offensive and defensive football.”

This should be encouraging for Kansas fans. This type of mindset will only make the transition of the culture change that much smoother.

But it’s also about player responsibility. The coaching staff is making sure the players are focusing on their nutrition, giving 100 percent at practice, and coming into the facility the right way. And it’s all about the details, from small to big.

New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki understands the task that lies ahead of him.

"“We are in the never-ending quest to eliminate bad football in this program. And I’m talking about turnovers, I’m talking about penalties, I’m talking about mental errors, I’m talking about negative runs. Those are the things that are bad football.”"

This won’t be something that gets fixed overnight. Kansas football has had more than its fair share of bad football, and it will take time to reset the losing mindset.

But it helps to have a coaching staff that recognizes it in an honest way to be able to make these necessary changes.